Unbreakable
by Writing is Peace
Summary: I wouldn't call this running for my life, I think it's more so me running from my life. Since my mother died, all I wanted to do was escape. On my sixteenth birthday, I made it happen. I wouldn't call myself homeless, because technically, I'm living on a 'home'. Follow my journey of making a life for myself, going through ups and downs, jobs, friends, enemies, and... love?
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! This is my first chapter of my newest fanfiction and I have big plans! Please let me know what you think by reviewing and Pm me if you have any comments/questions. Don't forget to check out my other fan fictions.**

 **I hope you enjoy!**

 **Wacko Fact- I just got my final grades back and yay, I passed all of them.**

Unbreakable

That's what I am.

"It's time to go." I hear Valentine bellow from the living room. I ignore him, sliding my window open, throwing all of my things in a small bag, Valentine has never really given me a lot. I have to leave my phone behind because it's traceable, same with my debit card. I went to the ATM yesterday and pulled out all the money to my name, as well as purchasing a prepaid phone that I will have use of for a year. I have been plotting how to disappear for five years now, and today, on my sixteenth birthday, I am making it happen.

"Clarissa Adele Morgenstern, what in the hell is taking you so long?" Valentine yells, I hear his heavy footsteps coming toward my door and I race over, locking it quickly. It won't hold him long, but at least long enough for me to slip out the window. I pile in the last bit of clothes that I can fit, I make sure that I have my train ticket, and grab the photo scrap book that my mother had made for me those many years ago. I hear the key enter into my door and I get snapped back into reality.

I zip my bag, throwing it onto my back and I hightail it for the window. As soon as I launch into the fire escape I hear my door swing open and crash into the wall of my shitty apartment bedroom. I pound down the fire escape, my heart hammering against my rib cage.

"Clarissa!" I hear Valentine holler at me but I don't turn around to see if he is following me or not. I reach the ally, my prepaid car coming into view, making me smile. Valentine had to have seen this coming, he claims he's such a 'smart man'. I slow as I approach the prepaid car, I don't need to worry the man. I open the back seat door and he smiles at me in the review mirror.

"Clarissa?" He asks and I nod. He puts the address I provided him with in his GPS and begins driving down the suburban roads. I vaguely see Valentine come running out into the street, yelling at us, or I guess me, as we pull down the street, leaving my God awful life behind me.

"Train station yeah? Where are you headed?" The older man asks me and I bite my lip. I can't tell him, no way in hell.

"On an adventure." I tell him and he nods curtly, bringing his attention back to the road. The ride is only about twenty minutes before we reach the station and I scramble out of the car as fast as possible. I at least take a breath to thank the man.

I walk up to the ticket teller, the night starting to fade in. I hand the lady my ticket stub and she stamps my hand, allowing me to pass through the gates. I flip my navy blue hood up, I don't need anyone recognizing me or getting caught by any cameras. I decide to spend the night in the station, it would be to obvious if I left right after running away. I notice a kid with glasses, probably close to my age, staring at me from across the way. I flash a smile at him, hopefully showing that I've caught him staring at me so he will leave me alone, be the doesn't. Instead, he stands up, walking over to me and sitting down on the bench next to me.

"I'm Simon." He says, offering me his hand and I shake it slowly.

"Clarissa." I respond and he smiles.

"Who are you running from?" He asks me, pointing at my hoodie and my backpack.

"Who said I'm running?" I respond and his smile falls, before smirking. He has a look on his face that says, 'I know something that you don't.'

"Your hiding from the cameras, I know that because I am too." Simon says, pointing up at his red hoodie and I smirk.

"My dad, what about you?" I ask in return and he sighs, adjusting his thin rimmed glasses so they sit correctly on the tip of his nose.

"My mom, where are you running to?" He asks and I hand him my ticket, I don't want to say it out loud, just Incase somebody hears me.

"No way, me too!" He says, a little bit too excited and I smile. Maybe he's a serial killer running away from his crimes, maybe not, but it's going to be nice to have someone to go through this journey with.

I check my watch, it's about nice at night. Since it was my birthday, Valentine wanted to go to a late night movie. This was his first attempt in a while at being a real dad.

"I'm going to get some rest, see you in the morning." I tell Simon, propping my backpack up behind my head, pulling out a blanket and covering myself with it. I 'close' my eyes, leaving them open just a sliver, watching Simon walk away from me and back to his bench he claimed earlier. I keep my eyes open for a little bit longer, making sure that nobody is planning on messing with me, before I allow sleep to take over. My train leaves at five in the morning tomorrow, I need all the rest I can get.

I wake up to the loud speaker sounding off, "now boarding train 8B7 Bar Harbor, Maine to New York City, New York." I push myself off the bench, stretching upwards before pulling my ticket out of my pocket and walking up to the now wide open doors. I get my ticket scanned before moving stiffly into the train. I move into the lounge room, setting everyone settled down in their seats. Simon peeks upward, waving me over to him. I smile, walking to him, dripping down in the seats across from him.

"So Clarissa, what is your plan?" He asks me curiously and I sigh.

"I've done a bunch of research and I found a home for children escaping their families, all under twenty-one. The home pairs kids together in groups of 6, helping them get job, go to school, get a home to share, stuff like that." I explain to Simon and he sighs.

"Can you take me with you?" His voice sounds pleading and I nod, giving him a small smile.

"I may be a run away, but I am nowhere near cold hearted." I say and Simon returns my smile, except his is much larger.

"So Clarissa, why are you running from your dad?" Simon asks me and I sigh, running a hand through my wild red curls, tying it up so it is out of my face.

"How 'bout this. Why don't you explain to me why you are running from your mom their, and than I'll explain while I am running from my dad." I try to compromise with Simon and he nods, smiling.

"My family has always gone through ups and downs, my parents got divorced when I was 7, my dad was a dick anyway. I haven't seen him since the day he walked out my front door those ten years ago. My mom started drinking, like really bad. She'd start drinking at ten in the morning and wouldn't finish until one in the morning, fifteen hours later. She sent to rehab when I was twelve, I lived with my grandma for the years she was there. My grandma, grandpa, and my sister all died in a car accident when I was thirteen. My mom relapsed, and got worse. That's when the abuse started. When I was fifteen she shoved me down the stairs and broke my arm. I never wanted to hit her back or do anything because she is my mom and I love, loved her." He begins to tell me, his voice low and his eyes avoiding mine.

"Last night it was just really bad, I'm really impulsive and I finally snapped. I decided to leave for good. It will better the lives of both of us. If I'm being honest, I don't know if she will even miss me." Simon finishes and I frown, leaning forward and putting a hand on top of his. He turns his attention from outside the window to me and his lips go from pursed to corked upwards.

"So what's your story?" He asks me and I shrug.

"You know, the basic, my mom died a couple years ago and my dad is an asshole." I tell Simon, trying to be vague. I stand up, removing my hand from his and I give him a smile.

"You wanna grab some food?" I ask, I want to get close to this boy. I feel that if I have at least one friend to go on the run with, this whole adventure, if you want to call it that, will be easier.

"I'm starved." Simon says, standing up behind me. We walk together through the car, avoiding the stares of some elderly people, they probably know we are running away.

"Are you changing your name?" Simon asks me and I nod.

"I have too, I know my dad wants me back and he will stop at nothing to find me. If I don't change my name it'll be like me wearing a GPS tracker.

"What are you changing your name too?" Simon asks and I shrug, not really knowing.

"No clue, do you know?" I ask him back. I don't really want to talk about this now but…

"Simon Lovelace. I've actually thought this one through. My fathers mothers maiden name was Lovelace, my mom isn't that smart, I doubt she will be smart enough to look back through our families history. She's always underestimated me, she probably doesn't think I'm smart enough to look through our families history." Simon finishes, he sounds like he doesn't have a lot of respect for his mom, but afterwards what he's told me, I don't blame him.

"Lovelace, that's pretty." I say as we reach the food car.

"I've been planning this for five years and never have I ever thought about creating a fake name for myself." I say and Simon raises his brow at me.

"Five years?" He asks and I nod.

"Yeah, I wanted to make sure I was able to escape. If I was caught by my dad, I knew that I would never get another chance." I explain, walking up to the buffet table, getting a couple different fruits and breads. I put some in my backpack, keeping some for later down the trip. It is about a two and a half hour walk from the train station to the home, and it will have to be done at night. I am going to want to have some type of food to hold me over.

"You are leaving your old life behind and all your are bringing is what is inside of that little backpack?" Simon asks and I smirk.

"I wanted to get rid of as much of my old life as possible. I only took as much as I needed and what my dad can't track." I explain and Simon purses his lips as we walk back to another table.

"You aren't kidding, you really do want to get away. What did he do to you?" Simon asks and I grimace.

"A lot," I kind of avoid the question, yawning, "I think I am going to my room, maybe try and sleep, plan a little bit. We are about eight hours out." I tell Simon and he nods.

"Ok, I'll see you a little later." Simon tells me and he ends up walking the other way as I move towards my room for the day. I ignore the stares, even though I am sixteen, I look nearly 14, and what 14 year old would you see by herself on a train on the way to New York City. You wouldn't. I reach my room, using my ticket stub to open up my door, and I enter. I kick the door shut behind me and I drop my backpack onto the floor before dropping down onto the small twin bed.

JACE'S POV

"Are you shitting me?" I roar, so very angry, words can't even describe, "I have been here with my brother and sister for four years, when are we going to be able to leave?" I ask, the three of us have been working our asses of at work, we have been keeping good grades in school. We were all ready to move out to our new apartments, we had two others that were going to come with us. They had to bcd out after loosing their jobs.

"I'm sorry Jace, I am so very sorry." The owner of the house, Ms. Wayland, says, running a hand through her thinning black hair.

"When we get two new people, we can put them with you. It may take a while, but I promise you, you guys are next in line for your new home." Ms. Wayland promises me and I sigh.

"Ok." I respond, my heart hammering against my chest. I walk out of the kitchen and up the stairs towards "my" bedroom. Izzy, my 'sister' and Alec, my 'brother', sit up from their own bunk beds, hopeful looks on their faces.

"From the look on your face, I'm going to guess it's bad news." Alec asks me and I shrug.

"There is nothing Ms. Wayland can do. She said the next two people in will be paired with us. But she doesn't know how long it will take." I explain and Isabelle groans, standing up from her bunk, walking over to the older dresser and opening up her draw, pulling out a black hat and putting it on, matching her jet black hair.

"It's getting late, I need to go to work." Isabelle says, giving Alec a pat on the back and turning to me, giving me a single arm hug.

"Have fun!" I holler at her as she rushes out of the room and I hear her pounding down the hall. I work at the bar down the road, Alec works at a restaurant as a waiter after school, and Isabelle works at the local night club as a DJ. She hates doing it but she makes more money than both Alec and I.

"I'm glad we don't have school for the next couple weeks," Alec says, standing up from his bed stretching. We are on winter break right now, supposably for holidays, but none of us really love holiday.

"I'm not going to be glad about anything until we move out of the damn Institute." I mumble flopping down onto my lower bunk. The clock reads seven, I have work from nine to one in the morning. I pull out some of my text books and begin working on my homework. Alec does the same and we work in silence.

I use my homework to pass the time, finishing almost all of it. I stand up from bed, walking over to the bathroom, my work clothes in hand. Black pants, black dress shirt, and red tie. These are the fanciest clothes I own. I slick my blonde hair back before grabbing my wallet and my cheap phone. I walk out of my room, bidding goodbye to Alec and kicking the door shut behind me and bounding down the stairs. There is about twenty people in the house, eighteen to be exact, nineteen if you count Ms. Wayland.

"Be safe Jace!" Ms. Wayland yells after me as I shut the front door behind me. It is already dark outside, the cold air is frigid, and the traffic, businesses, and street lights show that night life is booming.

I love New York City, I really do, but I hate working here. I reach the bar in minutes, work is already booming, we are low on staff. I walk to the back, grabbing my note book and pen and I get right to work, walking over to a hightop full of girls.

"Hi, welcome to The Hunter's Moon, how can I help you?"

CLARY'S POV

Simon and I have been walking for a little over two hours and it is almost midnight and we have blow through all of our snacks.

"We should find a restaurant, take a break and eat. We are within three miles of the place, what's it called?" Simon asks, looking at the map.

"If we find a restaurant that's open, sure. And it's called the Institute." I tell Simon and we continue to move down the brightly lit New York street.

"Have you ever been here?" Simon asks another question and I take the map from his hands, checking it myself.

"As in New York? Never, but I have done so much research, it feels like I have." I explain to Simon and he nods, too much in awe to speak as he watches the buildings. We take a left, walking a little more until we reach a long red bridge, The Brooklyn Bridge. The Institute is on the other side of the bridge, just a mile from there. We are so close.

I look over the edge of the bridge at the dark water and my stomach begins to churn. I have never liked water, you will never, ever see me at the beach or in the water. I walk quickly, hearing Simon pattering after me.

"Don't like bridges?" Simon asks me and I shrug.

"I don't like water, getting off this damn bridge would be great." I say and Simon nods.

We walk for another five to ten minutes, getting of the monster bridge and back down onto the sidewalk. We begin to look for an open restaurant that does seem to busy. We want to make sure it's too expensive.

"That place is open, and doesn't look busy." Simon tells me, pointing across the road at a well lit bar with a full moon for a sign.

"Sounds good." I say and the two of us wait for a break in the traffic to dodge across the road. I let out a heavy breath as we enter the kind of busy restaurant, old school rock plays and Simon hums along.

"Take a seat wherever!" A blonde guy yells from behind the bar. Simon and I walk to a booth, sitting down across from each other and just staring. I shrug off my backpack, taking the pain off my back, making me sigh.

"How far are we?" Simon asks and I check the paper.

"Less than half a mile." I say, cracking a smile and the blonde guy walks over to our table, handing us menus.

"You guys are new here, where you guys from?" He asks, his voice smooth. I glance at Simon, sending him a look that says, "don't say shit."

"Uh, Alabama." I say, my voice waving so much it's sad, giving him a halfway convincing smile.

"Ok, 'Uh Alabama', what can I get for you to drink?" He asks, and we both order two large cups of water... each. We eat, drink, pay our semi inexpensive bill and get back to our hike, leaving the restaurant and the attractive server gives us a weird look as we leave. It's almost one in the morning and I really want to get off the roads.

We finally reach the Institute, looking at the building in shock. It looks like a church. I take a breath, walking up to the lot and knocking quietly. With in a minute, the door opens up and an older lady with black hair opens the door, her thin lips curling into a smile.

"Clarissa, I'm guessing? I got your phone call a couple days ago. Please come in." She welcomes us inside. I notice a few people in the kitchen, their heads snap up and stare at us, but Ms. Wayland pays no mind. She begins to lead us up old stairs and I glance at Simon, a little bit nervous.

"We can talk tomorrow. I'm sure you guys are very tired. Let's get you two to your room. Tomorrow morning we can get you guys enrolled in school, start working, stuff like that." She leads us to a bunk room, pointing to the right side.

"Those three are open. Pick your choice and get some rest." Ms. Wayland leaves the room and I glance at Simon. The two of us smile, racing over to two different beds, both getting top bunks. It feels so nice to be safe.

"I think I am going to take a shower." Simon tells me and I nod.

"I think I am going to take one in the morning, I am about to pass out." I respond and Simon walks into the bathroom, carrying his duffle bag and shutting the door behind him.

I pull out a hoodie, leggings, and socks, shutting the bedroom door and changing quickly, putting my dirty clothes back into my backpack and zip it up. I sit in bed, my thoughts running wild. It is finally setting in how much my life is about to change.

"Hello?" I hear, looking up and watching the door open slowly. I get nervous, popping out of bed and standing on my feet. The blonde guy from the restaurant is standing in the doorway, a tall, handsome guy with black hair is behind him.

"Uh, Alabama, what'cha doing here?" Blonde guy asks me and I cross my arms.

"Stalking you of course," I begin and his brow shoots up, "I live here."

"Since when?" Blonde guys asks.

"Like twenty minutes ago."

"Impressive. Where is your boyfriend?" Blondie asks and I roll my eyes, "I met him like two days ago, we are hardly even friends."

Blonde boy smiles, stretching his hand out, happy with my answers to his interrogation. I shake his hand with a weary smile.

"I'm Jace Herondale, this is my brother, Alec Lightwood." Blonde boy, or Jace says, jabbing a thumb at black haired boy, or Alec, over his shoulders. The boys walk into he room, making their way over to their beds. I happen to choose the bunk right above Jace.

"I'm," I take a minute, trying to decide what I want my new name to be, "Clary." I finish, smiling a little bit to myself, actually liking the sound of that.

"Well, welcome home Clary." Jace tells me with a wide smile.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys, chapter two, wow! That last chapter was very long, I can't promise that all chapters are going to be like that, but I promise I will try!**

 **So this is going to be a review oriented story, so the next chapter will be posted when the chapter gets the number of reviews.**

 **3 reviews = next chapter**

 **Wacko Fact- I just got a cat!**

CLARY'S POV

"So you're not really from Alabama?" Isabelle, Jace and Alec's sister, who bunks above Simon, asks.

"Do I look like I am from Alabama?" I respond and Alec smirks.

"I've never met anyone from Alabama, I wouldn't know." Isabelle shoots back, "she has all of her teeth, she's not from Alabama." Jace yells from the bathroom and I laugh.

"I'm not from Alabama!" I exclaim, Simon comes into the room, pulling out his new I.D out with a smile handing it to me.

"Both of us are from Maine." I tell Isabelle. Simon got his I.D and plan set up first since I slept in and wanted to take a shower. His I.D reads Simon Lovelace and I smile up at him, giving him a high five. Simon took about three hours to get set up, I have a feeling I am going to take longer. There is a knock on the door, bringing me back to earth and I hand Simon his I.D back.

"Come on honey." Ms. Wayland says from the doorway and I walk over to her, a little bit nervous. She has a ghost of a smile on her lips as she leads me down the stairs to her office/bedroom.

"Sit down, let's talk." Ms. Wayland says, sitting down at her computer, pointing at a chair next to her desk. I take a seat in the chair and she begins to type.

"Are you going to change your name?" She asks and I nod.

"Ok, what is your new name?" She asks, continuing to type.

"Clary." I tell her my new name and she smiles.

"Last name, and age?" she questions me and my wheels begin to turn. I haven't come up with a last name yet.

"Fray, and 16." F for Fairchild, my mothers maiden name, and The Fray just happens to be my favorite name.

"What classes did you take last year?"

JACE'S POV

Clary's friend went downstairs to go get lunch and meet some people. This is giving Alec, Izzy, and I a chance to talk.

"So... what do we think about our new friends?" I ask and Isabelle smirks.

"I like the girl, Clary, she is nice to talk to, the guy is quiet but he seems sweet." Isabelle says and Alec shrugs.

"The little girl seems ok, the guy is a bit weird." Alec tells his feelings and I smirk, "you think everyone is weird." I tease and he rolls his eyes.

"Fine Jace, what do you think of them?" Alec asks me, his voice dripping with sarcasm and a tone that says, "I don't really care."

"I think the red head is cute with a snarky personality, and I think the kid with the glasses looks like a rat and doesn't really know what he is doing." I say and I hear a laugh to the right, my head snaps to the side and I see Clary standing in the doorway, laughing with a hand over her mouth.

"If you think I'm snarky now, just you wait." She says after she collects herself and stops giggling.

"Oh I can't wait." I say with a smirk and Isabelle laughs next to me. Alec groans, standing up from his bunk and checking his watch.

"I gotta go to work. We should do something after everyone is done for the day." He announcing, giving me a fist bump and giving Isabelle a pat on the head, "bye Alec." Isabelle says and I yawn, giving goodbye to him.

"Speaking of job's, who works at the bar? Ms. Wayland put me on the same schedule as whoever works at the bar," Clary pipes up from the corner of the room. I smirk, raising my eyebrow at her.

"You're with me sunshine." I wink at her and she smiles back, walking over to her backpack.

"Sounds lovely, what time do we start?" I she asks and I check my watch, it reads three in the afternoon.

"In about three hours." I tell her and she nods, walking over to her bunk and climbing in.

"So what brought you here?" Isabelle asks Clary, who is under her covers and looking at the ceiling.

"I needed to get away." She tells us vaguely. That is exactly how I was like when I first got here about four years ago. I want to break down her walls just like Alec did for me.

"From?" I press and she sends me a glance.

"My family?" She responds, her glare boring into my eyes, almost making me flinch.

"Why?" I ask her, seeing how much more I can push her and she rolls her eyes.

"If your are expecting me to tell you my life story after only knowing you for a day, you should at least do the same." She snaps and I smile.

"I'm an open book." I respond and a grin spreads across her face.

CLARY'S POV

He shouldn't have said that. I am going to bother him just like he did to me the night before.

"How old are you?" I ask and he smirks.

"17."

"How long have you been here?" I continue on with the questions, Isabelle just watching. Where is Simon?

"Four years."

"Why do you care so much about my past?" I ask, corking my brow.

"I'm curious and nosey." He responds and and Isabelle snorts in the background.

"And he thinks you're pretty." Isabelle says and Jace shrugs.

"That too." Jace admits and the door swings open, Simon walks over to me, holding out a wad of cash. I go to reject it but Simon starts to talk.

"It's from Ms. Wayland. It's for you to go get your work uniform." Simon says and I nod, turning to Jace.

"What's the uniform?" I ask and he turns back to look at me.

"For girls, black dress and red heals." Jace tells me and Isabelle jumps up from bed.

"If you are going shopping, I am coming. I love shopping." Isabelle tells me and I smile. It would be way more fun if she came.

"Sounds good." I respond and she smiles.

"Bye boys, be good." Isabelle sings over her shoulder and he two of us walk down the stairs.

"I like that you challenge Jace, he needs someone to make his brain hurt everyone now and than." Isabelle tells me and we leave the Institute, walking down the street.

"He asks a lot of questions." I respond, ducking into a small department store. I hope they have some stuff on sale.

"Yeah he does, he used to be really quiet. He has changed a lot since we've met." Isabelle tells me as we walk through the store, back towards the sale rack.

"Met? Aren't you guys brother and sister?" I ask, pretty confused as I pick through the racks.

"Not by blood. We we're at the Institute as soon as the age allowed, at ten. Jace didn't show up until three years later but he bunked with us. From there we just kind of became the trio." Isabelle explains, pulling out a skimpy black dressing, giving it a once over, before handing it to me.

"Try this on." She tells me and I take it, continuing our conversation.

"The way you guys talk about each other, it sounds like you guys are actually brother and sister." I tell her, walking towards the dressing room, hearing her walking behind me.

"We have been so close for so long that it feels like we have been. I love Alec to death but sometimes he can be such a buzz kill, and with our situation, we need a little fun every now and than. Jace has always been a bit of a prankster and a trouble maker. He makes everything a little bit more fun." Isabelle explains to me as I walk into the stall, "what size shoes do you wear?" She yells to me.

"A six, and I can tell that he is a little bit of a wild one. If you don't mind me asking what made you guys come to the Institute?" I ask, watching her walk around my door as I slip the short, skin tight dress on.

"My parents pasted away along with my younger bother in a car crash when I was ten and Alec was eleven. We didn't have any close relatives to turn to so we ended up making a run for it. It was the best decision I could have made." Isabelle tells me, sliding shoes under the dressing room door. They are red with a little heal, they're not to bad.

"What'cha think?" I ask Isabelle, coming out of the dressing room and she smiles, putting her hands together.

"It looks great on you, but I think it's missing something, I'll be right back." Isabelle says and I smile, nodding and walking back into the dressing room, shutting the door. I change back into my normal clothes, putting on my battered Chuck Taylor's before walking out of the room, carrying the dress and heals in my hand.

"Special occasion?" A guy with dark black hair and dark eyes asks me, walking next to me as I search the store for Isabelle. I stiffen up a little bit, only watching him out of the corner of my eye.

"Job uniform." I tell him, trying to keep the conversation brief.

"My name is Sebastian." He tells me and I turn to look at him.

"Clary." I respond and he steps in front of me, causing me to stop.

"Listen, I saw you walk into the store and I couldn't help but notice how beautiful you are. I was wondering if you wanted to get dinner together or something?" He asks and I feel a rough patch on the roof of my mouth. Sure, he's attractive but something about him makes me feel uneasy.

"I would love too but right now just isn't a good time for me." I tell him and he nods, slowly before moving out of my way.

"Maybe another time." Sebastian says, walking away from me as Isabelle comes back to me, holding a fancy and expensive looking bra.

"It's not as expensive as it looks. Who was he?" She asks me, meaning Sebastian, and I shrug.

"Some guy who wanted to take me out, I said no." I tell Isabelle as we walk up to the older lady standing behind the cash register. It only cost thirty five dollars and Ms. Wayland gave me fifty. I am glad I can give her some money back in return. We leave the store and Isabelle finally asks, "why didi you tell him no?" She asks and I shrug once again.

"Are you gay? We don't judge, Alec is gay too." Isabelle blurts out and I begin to chuckle.

"I'm not gay. I just really didn't want to go out with him. He gave me a bad vibe." I explain and Isabelle nods as we walk down the street.

"Understandable. Are you excited for work?" Isabelle asks me and I sigh with a shrug.

"I am excited to make my own money and to start supporting myself but I don't know how I feel about wearing a dress every night and flirting for a living." I explain to Izzy and she nods, listening to me.

"I'll think you'll do awesome, plus you'll look hot as hell. Pretty waitresses always make good tips." Isabelle tells me with a wink. We arrive at the Institute and I let out a sigh.

"Nice tips would be nice." I say dreamily as we enter the Institute. I scan the room for Ms. Wayland. I find her in the kitchen and I hand her the money with a smile, thanking her.

"Don't worry about it honey, good luck at work tonight. I'm sure Jace will show you the ropes." She tells me and I continue to smile, walking off into the living room. I notice that whenever I walk into the rom people turn to look at me, whispering. Isabelle has already gone upstairs and I let out a sigh, my temper getting the best of me.

"Hello, my name is Clary and I am new here! Instead of mumble about me ever time I walk through a room, maybe you should come talk to me! Thank you!" I yell and a dark skinned girl smirks as I huff, rolling my eyes and walking out of the room, "please feel free to stare at my ass as I walk out!" I yell, notching a guy watch me with interest and he quickly looks away. I hear some bickering coming out of the room and I walk a little quicker.

"I've only known you for two days and I already hate you!" I hear Simon yell and I shove the door open. Isabelle is standing by the door, amused with a smirk on her face. Simon and Jace are standing in the middle of the room, yelling back and forth at each other, arguing like no tomorrow.

"Why are we arguing?" I yell over the boys and they both go silent for a moment, before tuning to me and talking at the same time, both explaining their sides of the story.

"Shut up!" I snap and both of them stop on the dime.

"If you both are talking at once, I can't hear either of you and you both look dumb. I don't care why you guys are made at each other, both of you need to shut up. Go your separate ways and cool off." I order them and Izzy chuckles. Jace huffs, walking into the bathroom, and Simon moves quickly out of the room with an eye roll. He mumbles under his breath on how he is going to the living room.

"You're amazing." Isabelle laughs, flipping down onto her bunk and I put my shopping bag down on my bunk and I knock on the bathroom door, winking at Izzy over my shoulder. I may have snapped at the boys a minute ago but I'm curious about why they were fighting.

"Herondale!" I yell, banging on the bathroom door and Isabelle laughs from behind me.

"Ma'am." He responds sarcastically, not opening the door so I continue to bang.

"Open the door." I say and he groans.

"You really don't want me to do that." He yells and I continue to bang.

"Open the damn door!" I yell and we continue to yell, "no," on his part, and, "yes," on my part, back and forth. Eventually the door swings open and Jace is standing in front of me, in just boxers. His chest and shoulders, covered in scars and tan skin. I blush quickly, whirling around so I am no longer facing him. Isabelle is now howling with laughter and I struggle to compose myself.

"Is this what you wanted?" He says, struggling to keep himself from laughing.

"Why are you almost naked?" I question and he laughs.

"I was going to take a shower but you wouldn't stop banging on my door." Jace says and I roll my eyes, turning back to face him, trying to keep my eyes up at his face.

"Why'd you pick a fight with Simon." I ask and he shrugs.

"I was bored and he's easy to make mad." Jace explains with a lazy shrug, making his arm muscles move and drawing my attention.

"Eyes up here Fray." Jace says and I move my eyes along his long scar that runs horizontally across his collar bone and I look up at his face. Isabelle is still howling in the background, not able to compose herself.

"Go take your damns shower, we can talk later." I tell him and he chuckles, winking at me, before turning around and walking into the bathroom, kicking the door shut behind him. I walk over to Isabelle, flopping down into the bed next to her with a groan.

"I can't handle that dumb ass."

**TIME SKIP**

"You're boobs look good." Isabelle tells me as I come out of the bathroom and Simon covers his ears.

"I didn't need to hear that." Simon says and Alec just shakes his head as Jace snickers.

"You'll get over it." I say, patting Simon on the back before walking over to Jace who is dressed in the same outfit he was when we first met, without knowing, at the restaurant, all black and a red tie.

"You ready Red?" Jace asks me and I narrow my eyes at him.

"Don't call me that." I say but Jace just smirks with an eye roll.

"Come on, we gotta go to work." Jace tells me, leading me out of the bedroom door and we walk together down the stairs. Once again people look at me a little strange but not for as long. I guess my little outburst did the trick. We walk shoulder to shoulder out of the Institute and make a right down the sidewalk.

"Have you ever worked at a restaurant?" Jace asks me and I shrug.

"Never, but it shouldn't be to hard, yeah?" I say and Jace chuckles. He explains to ropes to me as we arrive at the restaurant. We walk inside, noticing that nothing super crazy is going on and Jace leads me to the back room, where this is a bunch of cubbies.

"Here." He tells me, handing me a note pad and I nod, taking a deep breath.

"It's not that bad now, give in an hour and it will get a bit crazy." Jace tells me as we walk out of the back room and I glance once more at Jace before he gives me a light shove off towards my section.

"Just yell my name if you need help." Jace tells me with a smirk as he turns around and walks towards the bar. With in a second I yell, "Jace!" Just to mess with him and he rolls his eyes, continuing to walk towards the bar, already sick of me.

I smirk to myself one more time before taking another deep breath. I walk up to a table who has just been seated and I put a large smile on my face.

"Hi my name's Clary, what can I get for you?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys, I really like you're reviews and the** **amount of followers I'm getting. It helps me feel really confident about my writing and keep moving forward with the story.**

 **Also, sorry for the shorter chapter, but I promise the next one will be up soon.**

 **Five reviews=next chapter**

 **Wacko Fact- I got three dogs, a cat, and currently have three horses.**

"Hello beautiful." A guy, sitting with his buddies, who I have been serving drinks to all night, says.

"Here you go." I mumble, ignoring his comments as I put his beer in front of him and he grabs onto my arm, "stay awhile." He purrs and I tug my arm out of his grasp. I hate controlling men, plus this guy seems old enough to be my father.

"I would love too but I don't get off work for a while." I lie and he huffs, slurring out, "I can wait." he tells me and I stifle a groan. I need to remain polite. I walk away to the table, dreading the moment I have to walk back to him. I walk over to the bar, getting a beer for another one of my tables.

"Why is your arm red?" Jace asks me, filling up a tall glass of beer.

"A guy at my table got a little handsy. It's all good." I brush it off like nothing, reaching for the beer, but Jace pulls it back.

"If he does it again, you better get me. They should get kicked out for -." Jace gets cut off by yelling, and he perks up. The same guy who has been awful all night yells out, "bring me a beer baby girl!" I look up at Jace, who has his lips pursed and his hands clenched. My hands begin to tremble, I am getting upset. The other burly bartender perks up, putting the glass he was filling up down. I think he is the owner, Jace calls him Luke.

"You need to leave." Jace says calmly, his smooth voice cutting through the silenced crowd, this time it has a little bit of edge to it. The drunk guy walks over to the bar, moving sloppily and stumbling. He grabs me, one hand around my waist, another on my arms. My hands are still trembling, a mix of anger and fear.

"Not unless this honey comes with me." He says and Jace comes out from behind the bar.

"Don't touch her," "hands off," Jace and I say at once and I shove drunk guy off of me. I knee him in the dick just for good measures, but something about him is still making me afraid. My hands are still trembling as I lunge towards Jace, grabbing onto his arm and hiding behind him like a coward.

Drunk man is no longer hunched over on the ground and he is looking menacing at us. Luke is now over at the table, yelling at his friends. The two other waitresses are standing in the corner of the restaurant, watching the scene unfold.

Drunk asshole takes a swing at Jace, missing horribly. Jace grabs him by the arms, I blink, and suddenly, Jace has him in a headlock.

"You need to leave." Jace orders him, dragging him out towards the door, his friends following.

"You come back, I call the cops." Luke tells them and they leave the restaurant. People begin to clap and cheer and I walk out of the main room of the restaurant, ducking into the back room. A couple minutes later, Jace pokes his head into the room.

"Hey Red." Jace says, walking in and he sits down next to me, pulling a leather jacket down from the cubby above our heads, "fun first day huh." Jace says sarcastically.

"Luke is giving us the rest of the night off. He also said he was really sorry." Jace tells me and I don't respond, I just stare off, my hands still trembling.

"Anybody home?" He asks, nudging me with his shoulder and I sighed.

"He was so much like dad." I spit out, my hands shaking faster with each word, I can't control it.

"Why don't we go somewhere and talk? Let's go for a walk." Jace offers and I nod, he helps me to my feet. He takes a look at my trembling hands before taking them in his own. He holds them until they stop. He doesn't say a word about it, thankfully, he just leads me out of the back door, letting go of my hands.

I don't know where Jace is leading me, but I follow. My watch reads ten and I groan. It's late. He leads me to a park, and up a small hill that over looks a small lake. I should have told him I hate water, but than I would have to tell him why, and I don't want to do that. We both sit down, staring down at the dark water.

"Go ahead, you can tell me whatever you want." Jace asks me and I shudder. I feel Jace drape his heavy leather jacket over my shoulders, pulling it around me.

"My dad acted just like that guy when he was drunk. He'd yell these awful things, get physical, break things and never take no for an answer." I say, starring down at my knees and I feel Jace put a hand on my shoulder. He quickly pulls it away when he feels me flinch.

"What about you're mom?" Jace asks gently and I clench my fist, trying to get the trembling to stop.

"She's dead." Jace goes silent.

"Both mine are dead. They gave me up as a baby, they were a pair of junkies. I bounced from home to home. I tracked them down as soon as I could." Jace tells me and I instinctively reach for him.

"I'm sorry." I tell him, placing my arm on his forearm and he shrugs.

"Don't worry, I was too young to care and we all of our own sad songs." Jace tells me and I nod.

"Is your dad why you ran?" Jace asks me and I feel my gates begin to close and my hands stop trembling. Anger subsiding the pain and fear that I felt earlier.

"Yes." I give him a one word answer.

"Don't close up on me again." Jace tells me, putting a hand on my back before asking, "what did your dad to you?" I cross my arms over my chest, my anger subsiding, my fingers shaking, and I pull my knees to my chest.

"He beat me, every single night since my mom died. He constantly told me how I wasn't good enough, how I was the reason my mom killed herself, because she couldn't stand to be around me. He made me uncomfortable. What little friends he had, they always made comments about my body." I say, sundering and hands continually trembling and he tables his hand off my back.

"I know that me apologizing won't make anything any better, but I promise you that nothing will happen to you as long as I am around. I'll protect you., same with Alec. We aren't going to let anything happen to you." Jace tells me and I nod, putting in on his shoulder, staring down at the water, still weary. It feel's so nice though to get something off my chest, but I am still hiding so much more.

"What are you thinking about?" Jace asks me and I sigh, shrugging.

"Just life," I say vaguely and Jace continues with his questions, "what happened to your mom."

"She jumped off a bridge." Nice vague answer Clary.

"Do you want to go home?" Jace asks me and I shrug, looking up and counting the stars in the dark sky. When I don't respond, Jace nudges into me, making my head bob.

"Oh, uh, sure, sounds good." I mumble, standing up and Jace leads the way. I walk closely next to Jace and we exit the park and begin our walk back to the Institute. Jace constantly glances back at me, making sure I am still with him, like he is afraid to lose me.

"Where did you get your scars on your chest?" I ask, I probably shouldn't have.

"I was in a very religious foster home, the Nun's used to whip us with belts and wooden paddles when we got into trouble. They wanted to form the perfect children, and I would never be what they wanted me to be. I loved trouble and I loved street fighting I have the perfect face, the perfect personality, but I had a knack for finding trouble." Jace explains, dropping back so he is walking next to me.

"Street fighting huh?" I ask, kind of impressed, kind of worried.

"It was either that or become a male prostitute." Jace tells me with a smirk, "not that sex didn't found fun and all, but I was like 15 at the time, I did want to keep a little bit of decency. I also made way more money fighting, plus I was tired of just sitting around at the Institute, I was too young to get a real job." Jace explains and I nod, my brow elevated.

"That's how I met Alec and Izzy, they both fought. Alec and I still do it every now and than when we really need cash or just for fun. I started fighting when I was thirteen, and after a really close match that year, I got jumped by a guy with a knife. Long story short Izzy brought me back to the Institute to fix me up, and I ended up staying there." Jace finishes and my brow remains up.

"Someone stabbed you?" I ask, a little too loud in surprise.

"I did just say that Red." Jace says as we reach the front of the Institute, "let's go around back."

"Where?" I ask, referring to wear he was stabbed, and he glances at me over his shoulder.

"Shoulder blade, through and through, I'll show you when we go inside. Jace tells me. We creep into the house and move silently up the stairs, rushing pass the different rooms and reaching our room. The lights are out and from the looks of it, Alec and Simon are asleep in their respected bed.

"Izzy is still working, come on." He tugs me towards the bathroom, shutting the door before flipping the lights on.

"Sorry, I just don't want to wake up Alec, he can be quite grumpy if he doesn't get his beauty sleep." Jace says, undoing his tie and I back up a step.

"Um, why are you stopping?" I ask surprised and Jace begins to roll his eyes with a smirk.

"I'm showing you my scar silly, we literally just talked about this." Jace says, tossing aside his tie and beginning to unbutton his shirt. My face begins to turn pink as he pulls off his button down. Now that I am even closer, I can see the white and pink lines of scars that stand out from his honey colored skin. The wrap and cover his chest and shoulders.

"Oh my." I reach forward, tracing a long, thick mark that wraps from his chest, across his chest, and to his back. Jace shivers under my touch, for the first time I see a break in his cool exterior.

"That was from particularly angry nun." Jace says and I walk back in from of him. He takes my hand and places it on a major white scar on his shoulder.

"Stab mark?" I ask and he nods.

"Impressive." I say and Jace chuckles, pulling his shirt on by not buttoning it. He kind of looks like he belongs with the 'Chip and Dales'.

"What about you Red," he leans closer to me, dropping his voice, "scars?"

His voice makes me shiver.

"None that I want to show you." I say, my voice sounding playful, but I am being honest, "plus it's late and I'm tired." I tell him and he nods with a smirk, he flips the light off and opens the door. I grab some clothes that I can change. I change quickly in the bathroom and climb into bed. I notice Jace changes in the bathroom but doesn't climb into his bed. It wasn't like I was planning on sleeping anyway, I might as well snoop.

Jace eventually climbs into bed an hour later, he waited for Isabelle to come in and climb into bed herself. By now, I am wide awake and I don't really plan on going to bed any time soon.


	4. Chapter 4

JACE'S POV (YAY)

I wake up in the morning before anybody else does. I leave my lower bunk bed, to lazy to put on a shirt, I make my way downstairs in my plaid pajama pants. Barley anybody is up and I hear somebody knock on the door. I go to answer it, but Ms. Wayland get's there before me. I watch from the back of the room, listening. There are two men, dressed in fancy suits and they claim to be the FBI.

"Hello, we are looking for Clarissa Fairchild, we heard that she may be hiding out here." They say and I begin to rack my brain. Do we have a Clarissa Fairchild? I mean Clary... but her name doesn't really sound like Clarissa.

"I'm going to need to see some I.D before I answer any of your questions." Ms. Wayland says, her voice colder than I have ever heard it before. They both pull out fancy looking badges and Ms. Wayland purses her lips. She does not look excited to be talking to them.

"I don't house any more kids, I got out of that about two years ago." Ms. Wayland lies, who is she trying to protect?

"I'm going to need to see some proof of that Ma'am, do you mind if we come in while you get that?" They ask, attempting to peer over her shoulder and I dodge behind the wall. I hope they didn't see me.

"Actually I do, give me a moment." Ms. Wayland says, slamming the door in their face and rushing over me.

"Quickly, go wake everyone up and tell them to hide." Ms. Wayland says and I put a hand on her arm as she goes to run past me.

"Why?" I ask her and she sighs, beginning to walk again.

"I will explain after, just do it, we need to protect on of our own now." Ms. Wayland orders me and I nod, running up the stairs and banging on every rooms door, telling them to get hidden and that I am being deathly serious. Eventually I reach my room and by now everyone is away due to commotion, except Clary. I've noticed that she doesn't sleep well at night and she ends up sleeping in.

"Hide." I order and Simon is the first one up, climbing under the bunk bed. Alec and Izzy run over of the room and I rush over to Clary, shaking her awake.

"Clary, get up." I tell her and her eyes fly open, looking very confused. I grab her by the hand, pulling her behind me and rushing towards the small walk in closet.

"Wha' go'ng 'n." She mumbles, not very coherent and I pull her in with me, forcing her to sit on the ground underneath the shelf as I slide the door shut, sitting down across from her. It's dark and I can barley see Clary, but I can tell her eyes are wide.

"Shh." I hush her and she leans forward, putting her head against my chest. I think she is falling back asleep.

"You guys need a warrant!" I hear Ms. Wayland yell and Clary jolts, swinging her head up and hitting the wall with it, letting out a small noise.

"We have probable cause." I hear a man that I don't know yell, probably one of the FBI agents, and Clary goes to say something but I put a hand on her mouth. I hear some footsteps in our room and Clary sucks in a breath against my hand.

"Anything?" I hear one deep voice and the next one responds, "I think she's telling the truth." The other guy says and I bite down on my lip, holding my breath.

We wait in silence for a couple of minutes before I hear Ms. Wayland yell out, "coast is clear, those fake ass FBI agents are gone!" She yells and I sigh, pulling my hand away from her mouth. The closet door swings open, thanks to Simon and he laughs.

"How'd the two of you manage to fit in here?" He chuckles, but mostly looking down at Clary. Oh that poor boy, he is crushing on her so hard.

"Desperate times call for..." Clary trails off, yawning and I smile. I crawl out of the closet, helping Clary out and she walks past me, be-lining straight for her bed and crawling under the covers. Damn.

"Impressive." I mumble and she lets out a sigh, putting her covers up to her face. A few minutes later, Alec, and an annoyed Isabelle walk into the room.

"I had to climb into a bathroom cabinet. It's eight in the morning." Isabelle complains, walking over to her bed and doing the same as Clary. I tap on Alec's shoulder, jerking my thumb over my shoulder. He follows behind me, knowing that I have something important to talk to him about. I head down the stairs and lead Alec outside onto the back patio. I don't need anyone hearing what we are talking about.

"What's up?" He asks me as we talk behind the door.

"The cops were here and they were looking for a Clarissa Fairchild." I tell Alec and he raises a brow.

"That's why we had to hide? We don't even have a Clarissa Fairchild here." Alec says and I scratch the back of my head.

"Maybe it's Clary. She could have changed her name." I don't want to accuse Clary of anything but it makes sense. She shows up three days ago, barley telling us anything about her, and cops just so happen to show up at our home looking for her?

"So what? You think she did something bad back home and ran from it?" Alec asks and I shrug. Maybe the story about her dad was just a play to protect her real reason for being on the run.

"Maybe." I say and I hear the door swing open and a voice pipe up from behind us.

"If you really think I'm such an awful person why don't you have Ms. Wayland kick me out, or better yet why don't you just fucking talk to me." Oh shit.

CLARY'S POV

I can't believe the two of them. Sure I hid my real identity but now they are just spiraling. When I saw Jace tap Alec silently and lead him away, I got curious. Call me nosey but if I haven't had shown up when I did, they probably would have accused me of killing puppies or something inhumane and hideous like that. I shove the door open, crossing my arms, ready to go in on a very shirtless Jace and a PJ-ed up Alec.

"Clary listen," Jace starts but I put my hand up, silencing him.

"Did you ever think that maybe I changed my name to protect myself from my mental father who wants me dead? My dad's rich, I'm sure he could have hired some 'agents' to come and look for me. Jace, you know damn well why I ran, not because I broke the law." I say and both Alec and Jace purse their lips, looking down at their hands. I feel like I am scolding a pair of five year olds who colored on their mothers wall.

"You know, I really didn't think of that." Jace admits, running a hand through his hair, and Alec finally pipes up.

"You need to understand where Jace and I are coming from, we would do anything to protect our family. We were just afraid that you were bringing in a threat that we didn't know about. Secrets are very dangerous here." Alec tells me, crossing his arms over his chest, his voice very secrets.

"I'm not hiding anything." I lie, hiding what I'm hiding.

"Ok," Alec says at the same time as Jace and I respond with, "ok."

"Well unless you guys want to interrogate me on anything else, I am going back to bed." I mumble, going to walk inside but Jace catches my wrist, earning a glare from me.

"Dangerous territory." I mumble, not liking that he grabbed my arm and he instantly lets go.

"You and me need to talk." Jace says and I nod, ready to let him talk, but he glances at Alec.

"Um." Jace says, looking at Alec.

"Oh, um, I'm gonna go make breakfast before Izzy gets the chance too." Alec says, nodding once at me, walking inside. I glance at Jace, keeping my arms crossed and he seems actually, pretty nervous.

"First off, I'm sorry for grabbing your arm, I just wanted to make sure you didn't walk away. But I really just wanted to make sure you were ok after last night. I know it must have been hard and you kind of told me your entire life story." Jace tells me and I sigh, tucking my hair behind my ears and glancing down at my hands.

"I didn't sleep well last night but it's not a big deal." I try to brush off but I'm pretty sure he sees right through my glamour. He gives me a look but he doesn't pursue it, he just gives me a warm, toothy smile, before walking past me to the door, opening it up.

"Well, I'm not going to keep you from your sleep, since you didn't sleep last night. Go back to bed." He tells me, keeping a smile on his face. I nod, attempting to match his smile before walking inside, he shuts the door behind me. I move up the stairs, going towards our bedroom, while Jace moves to the kitchen.

I reach the room, seeing Simon and Isabelle both in deep sleeps, poor Simon, I need to talk to him. I am to lazy to climb up the ladder to reach my bed, so I just flop down in Jace's, I hope he doesn't mind. Oh well if he does.

...

...

I wake up a couple hours later to people talking in the room. I sit up groggily, rubbing my eyes. Jace is sitting at my feel and him and Isabelle are talking. Alec and Simon are playing a bored game in the corner of the room. It's cool to see that they are becoming friends. I don't want Simon to feel as if I am ditching him but just so much is going on it's been hard to focused on my new found friend.

"Was my bed more attractive? I don't blame you." Jace tells me with a smirk and I groan, leaning forward and lying my head against his arm.

"I was too lazy to climb up to my bed." I admit and Jace laughs, making my head bob.

"Jace, pre-calculus, focus." Izzy says and I pull my head off of Jace.

"Sorry dearest sister." Jace says and I laugh, "sorry I shouldn't be so distracting." I tease, winking at Izzy and looking over Jace's shoulder at his textbook.

"Ew pre-calc." I grumble and Izzy perks up.

"Are you taking it?" Izzy asks and I shake my head no.

"I took it last year and I hated it." I tell her, standing up out of Jace's bed and climbing up into my own, digging through my backpack for a change of clothes.

"Do we have work today?" I yell down and Jace says back, "no."

"Alec, Simon, do you guys have work today?" Isabelle asks them and they both shake their head no. Isabelle slams her pre-calc book shut and throwing it down.

"Lets go to the pier!" She says excitedly and I climb down from the bunk bed, making my way to the bathroom. I'd rather not go to the pier, because, you know, water, but I don't want to be a Debby downer. I change quickly, putting on a white t-shirt and black jeans, before brushing my teeth and washing my face. I exit the bathroom, going to sit down on the floor next to Izzy.

"Do you want to go?" Jace asks me and I shrug, "as long as it's free." I say with a smirk and Jace nods, putting his hands behind his head.

"There are shops, restaurants, and places like that, but over all yeah it's free to get in." Jace tells me and I nod, lying back down on the floor, looking up at the ceiling.

"I'm down." I say and over the next hour we all get ready to leave. Isabelle takes longer than Alec, Simon and Jace combined, but eventually, we all leave the house.

"How do we get to the pier?" Simon asks me and I turn to Jace, repeating the question.

"Subway." Jace says and I repeat the answer to Simon. Jace walks next to me, following behind Alec and Izzy, who are leading us. Jace seems to have an angry look on his face and I touch his arm.

"What's wrong?" I ask him and he looks down on me, putting a small smile on his face.

"Nothing, why do you ask?" Jace responds and I glance next to me, seeing Simon watching us with curiosity.

"You look mad as hell." I say bluntly and he shrugs.

"I'm not." He keeps it short and I roll my eyes, continuing to press.

"Then why do you look it?"

"Maybe it's just my face." He shoot back at me and I roll my eyes.

"Bullshit." I fire back and he rolls his eyes, slinging his arm around my shoulders lightly, smiling down at me.

"You read to far into things." He tells me as as we walk down the stairs, leading towards the subway.

"Whatever you say. But if you wanna talk, I'm here." I tell him, wiggling out from underneath his arm and bumping him lightly with my hip. He nods, a light smile still on his lips and the five of us park ourselves on a bench as we wait for a train to arrive.

"Have you ever been o a pier?" Iz asks Simon and me.

"No." I say, but Simon responds with a, "once."

"It is a ten minute train ride and a five minute walk once we get dropped off." Alec says, looking around and I lean my head back against a metal post, scratching my eyes.

"Sleep not treating you kind?" Simon asks me quietly was our train pulls up to the stop. Simon helps me to my feet and we walk next to each other.

"Not in the slightest." I admit and we sit down next to each other in the fairly empty train car.

"If you ever need to talk, I'm here." He puts his hand on my shoulder with a squeeze. I nod, standing up and stretch, cracking my back.

"That's gross." Alec and Jace say at once and I do it one more time just to bother them, because I am an asshole, "ooh." Alec says with a flinch.

"So Fray, what is New York like compared to Maine?" Jace asks and I shrug.

"Way busier, but I like it. It's easier to blend in." I say, sitting back in my chair.

"It's kind of hard to blend in with your bright red hair." Isabelle points out and I shrug.

"True, maybe I should die it black." I say and both Jace and Izzy belt out a, "no," causing people to turn and look at us like we are crazy, but hell, maybe we are.

"I was kidding." I say in defense, putting my hands up.

Eventually we arrive at our stop and the five of us flood out of the train, making our way back up towards the street. It is very bright and I end up having to cover my eyes. am never going to get used to going from under ground to above.

We walk in a small clump, nobody talking very much. After a couple of minutes, we arrive at the long boardwalk, noticing a lot of people.

"Oh, it's busy." Jace says and I laugh, "congrats you have eyes." I say and he glares.

"Very, come on!" Izzy yells excited and the rest of us have to walk very quickly to keep up with her. I try to keep my eyes from wandering to the water, making my stomach do backflips. We reach the boardwalk, smiles on our faces.

"What do you think?" Jace asks me and I glance around at everyones smiling faces and I try to match them, looking at Jace.

"It's cool, and I'm happy to explore more of New York." I say and he nods.

"I know I already asked and you already answered, but are you ok?" Jace asks me and I shrug.

"I'm not going to be as nice when we go to work. If a guy gets to pushy he's gonna end up with a fat lip. I'm not going to die or anything, I am just a little shaken up." I say, kind of telling the trash. I'm not really angry anymore but I'm still feeling bothered by the whole thing.

"Good." Jace says with a sign of a smile.

"Good."


	5. Chapter 5

**For those asking, or those who are curious, Magnus WILL be in the story, but he won't be introduced until a bit later in the story, same with Maia and Jordan, but they will be here. Anyways, four reviews and I will post the next chapter as soon as possible. Also, feel free to PM me if you guys ever want to talk or have any story suggestions. If you guys have any one shot ideas, I don't mind writing it, but I would most likely just send it to the person who requested it, rather then posting it.  
Wacko Fact- I have a horse named Sailor :)  
4 Reviews=Next Chapter**

"Can we go to the jumpers ledge?" Alec asks quietly and Jace raises a brow at him. What the actual hell is Jumper's Ledge?

"We don't have a change of clothes." Jace responds and I look between the two of them curiously.

"I brought towels and a couple changes of shirts. I know you two way too well." Izzy tells the boys, minus Simon and the boys share glances back and forth before high-fiving.

"Clary, Simon, you two are in for one hell of a surprise." Alec tells us and Simon and I share a worried glance. Jace smiles at me and the fie of us begin to make our way put this large cliff that is supposed to be blocked off, but none of us actually care. Izzy is leading the pack, followed by Simon, then Alec, then me, the Jace.

"So, um, what is Jumper's ledge?" I ask, I don't know wat it is, but I don't like the sound of it.

"You'll find out, don't worry though, it's fun." Jace says as we continue to climb.

"You're definition of fun may be a little bit different than mine." I grumble to myself but Jace just chuckles, continuing behind me.

"Why do you insist on walking behind me?" I would totally haul ass down the hill and not do whatever these dumb asses are planning on doing.

"He want's to stare at your ass!" Izzy yells down to us and I whirl around to give Jace he biggest stink eye and he holds his hands up in defense.

"False, I don't want you to run away. Plus, if you fall, someone's gotta be here to catch you." Jace says and I scoff at his stupidity as we reach the top of the hill, Izzy and Alec looking at us with a smile and Simon over looking the edge of the cliff.

"Welcome to Jumper's Ledge." Jace tells me as Alec begins to empty his pockets onto the rocks.

"No, not happening." I say, peering over the ledge down at the deep, rich blue water. I whirl back around and run away from the edge of the cliff.

"Don't be a wimp." Jace teases me, grabbing me by my waist and pulling me into him, causing me to shudder.

"I don't do water, swimming, diving, any of it." I say loudly and Jace rolls his eyes.

"You'll be fine." Jace tells me and I sigh, shaking my head no as Alec takes off over the ledge, letting out a victory yell. Within a couple seconds, we hear a splash and Alec yells, "Woohoo!"

"No way in hell." I growl and Jace gives me a shove towards the edge.

"I'm afraid of drowning!" I yell out as Isabelle gives me a sad look, right before she jumps off the edge.

"I'll do it first, nothing is going to happen to you." Simon tried to assure me, taking his glasses off and tugging his shirt off. I watch him carefully as he takes a nervous deep breath. He leaps off the edge, letting out a small yelp before splashing down into the water.

"I'm alive!" He yells up to use and I groan, turning to look at Jace, "you guys are suicidal." I start to panic, and Jace reaches towards me.

"The water isn't very deep, I can stand." Jace says, letting go of my hands. That is a good thing, 'cuz I can't swim.

"I don't know." I say weakly and Jace pulls his shirt off over his head. I am not ashamed to admit that I let my eyes wander a little bit.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you." Jace tries to convince me and I let out a sigh.

"Fine, don't let me drown." I tell I'm, still not feeling very good about myself. I slide off my shoes and I tie my hair up, dropping my old phone in a small pile. Jace walks over to me, taking my hand and leading me to the edge and glancing at me.

"You got this." Jace tells me and I nod as he counts back from three. Once he reaches one, he tugs me over the edge.

"Fucking hell!" I scream at the top of my lungs, but my voice is drained out when I smash into the water, Jace still has a hold of my hand. I reach down with my feet, trying to find the ground, but I can't. I begin to scramble, reaching up for help, and Jace tugs me above water. I gasp out, using Jace's arm to keep me out of water.

"You ok?" Jace asks me, brushing my hair out of my face. His face, neck, and shoulders are out of water. Everyone else is looking at us with concern.

"You said I could stand!" I state, panicked, looking around. I gasp between every word, trying to calm down.

"I said I could stand. Are you ok?" He repeats and I sigh.

"I can't swim." I admit and Jace's brow shoots up.

"What sixteen year old can't swim?" Alec asks me and I roll my eyes.

"A sixteen year old who is afraid of drowning." I snap and Jace pulls me towards slightly shallow water so my feet can reach the ground.

"You're not going to drown." Jace tells me, my hands gripping his bicep so hard, I may leave bruises.

"I can't stand, I'll feel better when I can." I tell Jace and he pulls me towards the shore a little bit and we reach Isabelle and Simon. Isabelle has her shirt off, reveling her red bra, and Simon is looking everywhere but at Isabelle.

"Clary, your shirt really isn't doing much for you when it comes to coverage." Izzy tells me and I look down at myself. She's right. My completely white shirt has been soaked through, leaving my black lace bra completely visible. At least I chose to wear a nice one.

"Well shit." I say, I am finally able to touch the ground. If I pull my shirt off, everyone will see my back laced with scars and they would get a fresh look at my tits. It's not like anything they haven't seen. I pull my white shirt off over my head and drape it over my shoulder so I don't lose it. Jace makes a noise that sounds like he is choking and he looks away from me Simon's face flushes pink and he also looks away. Isabelle smirks at him as Alec swims over to us, not glancing twice at me.

"So what? You guys run up the cliff, jump down, and swim around?" I ask, and Jace smirks.

JACE'S POV

I would have never guessed that Clary was afraid of drowning. She handles things so well, I mean, she survived everything her father put her through. I did she true terror on her face when she hit the water. She seems ok now, but she isn't moving around a lot and she can feel the ground. But now, I am the one struggling. I am trying really hard not to let my eyes wander.

"Sometimes we run up the hill a second time and jump down all over again." I tell her with a goofy smile and she says out, oh so sarcastic, "oh boy, sounds exciting." I roll my eyes at her, splashing some water at her, but missing, hitting Isabelle. Isabelle splashes back and Clary 'walks' quickly, using me as a human shield, and the rest of us begin to retaliate.

"Do you want to learn how to swim?" I ask Clary curiously after the splashing dies down.

"No." She says, shaking her head quickly and I try to hide my look of disappointment.

"You can do it. I'm not gonna to let anything happen to you, ya know." I say to her, giving her a small half smile and she continues to shake her head no.

"Next time." She says with a wink. I walk over to Izzy, giving her an innocent smile before I knock her legs out from underneath her, making her drop underwater.

We swim around for a while until we see the pier begin to clear up a little bit. We start to get a little cold so we decide to get out of the water ad make our way back up the cliff, back to our stuff. I notice Clary cross her arms over her chest and try to make herself as small as possible and I sigh, walking over to her and tapping her with my hand on her shoulder, "don't be subconscious." I tell her, and she rolls her eyes, walking next to me. I glance at her, noticing her back fir the first time. She has narrow, long scars running horizontal and diagonally along her back. They are placed in a position where she can wear a low cut shirt and nobody would see them. Whoever did this is a smart abusive asshole.

"You weren't kidding about scars." I tell her, running my finger on top of a particularly nasty scar. She shudders before shrugging and I raise my brow.

"Wanna talk about it?" I ask her, keeping my voice gentle and she sighs.

"In private, it's some heavy stuff." She whispers, trying not to let anyone hear. I watch Simon drape a towel over Clary's shoulders and she wraps it tightly around her, looking back at me once more, giving me a small smile.

CLARY'S POV

"You're pretty brave, you know." Simon tells me and I laugh. If you told my dad that, he'd probably laugh it off and call you a liar.

"I can be sometimes, but I'm really not." I respond and Isabelle brings me a t-shirt.

"It is going to be big but it will work." She says and I nod. I attempt to dry my jeans with the towel and I slide my shoes back on before pulling the oversized black t-shirt on.

"Are we ready?" Alec asks, taking my towel and putting it back in Isabelle's bag.

"Did you have fun?" Jace asks me, bumping my hip.

"I will admit, it was pretty fun after I got over the whole fear about me dying. I am still not a fan of water." I tell him and his face gives away a lot.

"Can I ask why?" Jace says quietly and I shrug.

"My dad tried to drown me." I say calmly but my hands begin to tremble. Izzy heard me as well and she glances over at me, "what?" She says loudly but Jace covers for me.

"It's a rock album." Jace says and I watch Iz's face soften.

"Oh ok, let's go." Izzy yells and we make our way down the boardwalk with our wet selfs. I think we are going to get lunch.

"Are you kidding me?" Jace whisper yells and I nod, trying to keep my hands from shaking anymore then they are.

"Can we talk about it later?" I ask quietly, my voice breaking and Jace glances down at my hands. He takes one of them, and cups it in his.

"I'm sorry." Jace says, leading me up behind Isabelle as we walk down the pier, looking for somewhere to eat, my hands still trembling. Jace holding my hand isn't really doing anything to stop it, but I don't really mind.

"You're not the one who did anything, don't be sorry." I tell him, my voice still at a whisper.

"I asked, but nevermind that, let's just have a good time." Jace tells me and I nod, taking some deep breaths and my shaking hands begin to slow down. When my shaking stops, Jace let's go of my hands and we reach the restaurant. It seems pretty calm and pretty casual.

We get seated down in a booth, Simon and Jace on either side of me and Izzy and Alec across from us.

"I feel bad for the people that have to clean these booths after we leave. I know that my wet leggings are going to leave an ass print." Isabelle says and I crack a smile.

"My jeans are still soaking wet." I say and Isabelle laughs.

"Maybe we should sit on towels." Izzy offers and Jace shrugs.

"Too late now." Jace says, not really caring and I roll my eyes. I have one big problem with Jace. Sometimes he acts like he doesn't care about anything. It makes me angry, but mostly it makes me worry. It causes me to think he is hurting more then he is letting on.

"Right?" Jace says, looking at me and I raise my brow. I have no idea what he is asking me about.

"Um, sure. Sounds good Jace." I say, not very convincing and an evil smile comes across Jace's lips.

"Ok, so, um, meet me at the motel at midnight, and wear fancy underwear." He says and my face flushes red. Isabelle and Alec snort and howl loudly with laughter, but Simon glares at Jace, why is he so angry? That obviously wasn't his original question but I decide to play along anyway.

"Boy, does it look like I own fancy underwear?" I joke back and Jace smirks.

"I mean, I could check." He says with a wink and I go to fire back, but Izzy steps in, "can you guys stop flirting so we can order our food." She teases us and a blonde waitress walks over to us.

"Hey guys, Jace." She lingers a glance on him but Jace doesn't seem to notice, care, or return her lustful look, "what can I get for you to drink?" She seems to glance briefly at everyone, but me. We all order, Simon and I going last.

"Welcome, new kids." She says, looking from Simon to me.

"Thanks." Simon says and I just look at her. She glares back at me and Jace kicks me under the table.

"Hi." I say grudgingly back and she nods, walking off, "bye Kaelie!" Isabelle calls to her and Jace rolls his eyes, giving me a look.

"You could try to make friends." He tells me and I smirk.

"She really wants to be 'friends' with you." I say, making sure my voice is deep with sarcasm.

"You sound jealous." Alec says and I scoff.

"I am not jealous." I shoot back and Jace smiles.

"Whatever you say Fray."


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys, sorry it's taken so long, I am drowning in work and school. Anyway, five reviews and I'll update the chapter as soon as possible!**

Clary's POV

"This is a bad idea." I tell Jace, my breath mixing with his since our faces are so close. Jace just shrugs.

"Have a little faith, they're not going to catch us." Jace says and I roll my eyes.

"That doesn't change the fact that Izzy is so going to kill us." I tell Jace and he sighs.

"Izzy is really going to kill us if she catches us before we actually do it. So shut up." Jace tells me, readjusting himself. Within a couple of minutes, we hear Izzy's laugh down the hallway and the bedroom door swings open, thumping against the wall. When Izzy gets close enough to us, we swing the bathroom door open, jumping out at her and she lets out a scream, dropping her textbooks to the ground. Jace and I both let out a barking laugh.

"I hate you both." She says with a smile, standing up from the ground, picking up her textbooks.

It's been about six days since we went to the pier and I have gotten closer with everyone, including Alec, surprisingly. Jace has informed me that, sadly, today is our last of spring break and that we go back to school tomorrow. We have to go to work tonight in about an hour and I'm not very excited. I've been keeping pretty quiet about it, but I get at least two rude comments a night about how these guys would love to, "take me home". I'm not exactly loving it but I make good money so it's kind of worth it. Hopefully I will be able to move out soon enough but I still don't who I am living with.

"I'm going to take a shower." I announce, making my way over to my dresser and digging out my black dress, red bra, and red heels.

"Nice bra." Izzy says with a wink and I chuckle when I see both Simon and Jace perk up a little from their own beds. Once again, Alec really doesn't give a shit.

"I know, right." I respond, moving into the bathroom. Jace stops the door with his foot, poking his head in, making me jump.

"What?" I say, my voice very high pitched. Jace smiles before saying, "don't take too long, I need to take a shower too." Jace says and I roll my eyes, shoving him by the face out of the bathroom, "you're stupid." I tell him, kicking the door shut as he laughs. I lock the door, stripping and taking a glance at my back, picking at the scars on my back.

"God Clary, you are so disgusting." I roll my eyes at myself. My dad was smart, only hitting me where I could see, my shirts would most likely cover them. I jump into the shower, washing hair, face, and body, before stepping back out. I get dressed, drying my hair off, and going under the sink. I found some of Izzy's makeup a while back, she told me to use it whenever but I haven't taken her up on that offer, until now. I don't know why all of a sudden I want to wear makeup, but oh well.

I put on eyeliner, mascara, eyeshadow, and even some lip color. To me, I would call this going all out. I walk out of the bathroom, heels in hand, and I jab my thumb over my shoulder.

"All yours blondie." I tell Jace and he looks at me strangely before walking into the bathroom.

"Wow, you look great." Simon tells me and I smile, looking at Izzy, who gives me and nod and a thumbs up.

"Thanks, I felt like trying." I tell him, walking over to my bunk bed and sitting down.

"You still look pale." Alec tells me, but he has a smile on his face.

"Thanks Alec."

"No problem Clary."

"You look good." Jace tells me as we walk down the stairs, making our way to the New York street.

"Just good." I tease and Jace rolls his eyes.

"You look amazing." Jace corrects himself, taking me back. I didn't expect him to say that.

"Well thank you." I respond, reaching the restaurant and heading to the back.

"Yell if you need me." Jace tells me with a smile and I chuckle, giving him a thumbs up.

"I'll just yell, 'jaceeeee.'" I sound like a whiny preteen and he rolls his eyes.

"Ok Fray." He chuckles, walking out of the room and over to the table.

"What can I get you?" I ask, putting a smile on my face, pulling out a note pad.

"Clary?" One of the guys says and I look up.

"Oh, hey Sebastian. What can I get you?" I repeat, I don't really want to have a conversation with him right now.

"You work here?" He asks me and I hold back an eye roll.

"Obviously." I reply back with a small smirk and he smiles.

"Ok, that was a dumb question." Sebastian says and I continue to smirk.

"Yeah it was, I kind of have a job to do, so what can I get you?" I ask again and everyone orders waters and sodas, except for one guy, who orders a beer.

"I'm going to need to see your ID." I tell him and he groans, handing me his ID. He checks out so I make my way over to the bar. Instead of Jace working, there is a dark skinned girl with black hair.

"You're Clary right? You are new at the house?" She says and I smile.

"Yeah, and you are," "Maia." She shakes my hand and hands me a beer.

"Every guy at that table is staring at you." Maia tells me and I just shrug.

"They can stare all they want, but they ain't gonna get anything." I say and Maia tips the glass she was filling at me with a tilt of her head.

"Cheers to that." She says and I laugh, bringing the guys their drinks.

"Here you go. Do you guys need a couple of minutes before you order?" I ask and Sebastian glances around at his friends.

"Come back in a couple of minutes." Sebastian tells me with a wink and I force a smile on my face.

"Sounds good." My patience with them is wearing thin, walking away annoyed and going to a different table.

JACE'S POV

"Hey Goldielocks." Maia says to me as I come up to the bar, asking her for a couple pints of beer. We have been friends for a while now, about a year and a half, since she came to the house. She was running from her crazy ex boyfriend. She's nineteen, we tried dating but it was just way too weird.

"Sup." I tell her and I glance over to Clary, who is taking orders from a couple.

"You are friends with the new girl Clary right?" Maia asks with a smirk on her face and I shrug.

"Kinda, why?" I ask in return and her smirk fades.

"Sebastian has been giving her, 'come home with me,' looks all night long." Maia says; Maia and I know all about Sebastian and neither of us like him very much.

"Oh," I trail off and Maia starts off again and I listen.

"You should do something about that." Maia says and I smile with a nod.

"Should I put the fear of god in him?" I ask and she smirks.

"Scare him, give him a run for his money, make him angry, all of that fun stuff." Maia tells me and I chuckle, bringing my beers over to the table, continuing to do my job until I see Clary walking over to Sebastian's table. I meet Maia's eyes and she nods, I return it.

I walk over to Clary, who is handing out food, and the smile on Sebastian's face falls. I love making him nervous, he should be around me.

"Hey." Clary says with a smile, and I smile to her, dropping it when I turn to look at Sebastian.

"I'm pretty surprised to see you back here, saying last time you got your ass kicked by Isabelle." I say, smirk on my lips and he crosses his arms.

"Jace, I would say it is great to see you but that would be a lie." He tells me and I roll my eyes. Clary has her eyes pinned on her, and he hand resting on my wrist like she is afraid I am going to fight him.

"Wow, we actually agree on something, but I might as well get to the point. Quit hitting on my girl my girl." I say and Clary digs her nails into my wrist out of surprise. Ouch.

"You girl?" He asks and I nod.

"I can tell that you were trying to get with her from across the room." I tell him and he puts his hands up, a small smirk on his face.

"My mistake man." He tells me and I nod.

"Yeah, your mistake." I tell him, narrowing my eyes at him, going to walk out, but kissing Clary on the cheek, making sure Sebastian and his buddies believe me. Clary looks at me, surprised by my actions and he cheek bones burn red, "please stay away from him." I mumble into her ear, walking away from her and she purses her lips before nodding her head. I go over to Maia, who is laughing her ass off.

"That was great Jace, but you kind have to get back to work." Maia tells me and I chuckle.

"Yes Ma'am." I solute her, walking back off to my tables with a wink.

CLARY'S POV

Jace and I just finished work and we are now eating left over veggies and snacks from the kitchen in the back room.

"You know, you really pissed me off when you called me 'your' girl." I tell him as I angrily shove a piece of broccoli in my mouth.

"Why?" He asks me, his brow raised.

"'Cuz you don't own me, no guy does. I am not a piece of property." I tell him, my voice solid.

"I wasn't implying that, it's just that he's kinda an awful person and I don't want him to hurt you." He tells me calmly and I cross my arms over my chest.

"I am capable of making my own decisions." I practically snap and he sighs, putting his hands up.

"I'm not saying that either but he's just bad news." He tells me and I sigh.

"Ok." I say, my temper back down to normal and he sighs.

"I didn't mean to make you mad." Jace tells me and I shrug.

"It's not a big deal, we should probably get back to the Institute since we actually have class tomorrow." I say and Jace nods, offering me his hands and tugging me up to my feet. We walk out out of the dark, empty, restaurant and out to the New York Street, making our way home.

"How'd you do, tip wise?" Jace asks me and I shrug.

"Not too bad, I got 150, better then I usually do." I tell him and he nods.

"Are you nervous about school?" Jace asks me as we reach the Institute, going inside.

"A little bit, I am not that great at making friends." I mumble as we sit down on the couches in the secluded living room.

"You masse friends with me." Jace points out and I laugh.

"True." I respond and he picks up a pillow, throwing it at me.

"Just be yourself and don't answer anybodies questions that you don't want to. What did you do at your old school?" Jace asks me and I shrug.

"I didn't really make many friends, they always ended up getting personal and asking things that I couldn't answer." I say and Jace kind of smiles.

"Oh, so like I did to you." Jace says with a smirk and I laugh.

"A little bit, but you have been pretty sweet about it. Plus, you are able to stop my hands from shaking, nobody has ever been able to do that before." I say and he gives me a small smile.

"Why do your hands shake?" He asks me softly.

"It's a side effect of my PTSD and my anxiety." I tell Jace, being pretty vague. It was only a matter of time before he asked.

"Oh," he says, falls silent for a couple minutes before saying, "we should probably go to bed, it is almost one in the morning." Jace tells me and I nod in agreement, standing up stiffly from the couch with a yawn.

"Do you think you are actually going to go to sleep tonight?" Jace asks me as we walk up the stairs to our bedroom and I whirl around to glare at him.

"How did you know that I don't sleep?" I grumble and he smiles.

"I like to be the last one to fall asleep, but I can never beat you." Jace explains to me and I begin to walk again up the stairs, leading him to our bedroom, where everybody else is asleep.

"Night Fray." Jace says as he brushes past me, making his way to the bathroom to change out of his work clothes. I glance around the room, making sure that nobody in the room is remotely awake before I quickly change out of my clothes and into my pajamas. I scramble up the ladder to my bed with a yawn, plying the covers up to my neck. Maybe I will actually sleep tonight.

"Rise and shine you beautiful people, we got places to be!" Isabelle sings out, waking me up and I groan, throwing a pillow at her, "good morning sunshine." She sings out again, throwing the pillow back at me.

"Get up!" She tells me and I groan, sitting up.

"I'm up." I roll my eyes, climbing down the ladder and stretching in the middle of the room.

"Hood morning to you too." Jace tells me, poking me in my thigh. I just realized that I am currently sticking my ass in his face

"Sorry," I tell him, moving away from his face and walking over to my dresser and pulling out jeans and a t-shirt.

"That is such a boring outfit." Izzy tells me and I shrug.

"I don't really have anything very fancy." I tell her walking into the bathroom and brushing my hair out, changing quickly. I walk out of the bathroom, fixing my hair a little more.

"You look good." Simon and Izzy both say at once and I roll my eyes.

"I really don't look anything special." I respond, getting my back pack and filling it up with he supplies that Ms. Wayland gave to me on my first day here.

Everybody, one by one, takes their turn getting ready and washing up. The five of us go together in a climb downstairs and into the kitchen.

"I'll cook," Jace offers, moving around me and to the fridge.

"You can cook?" I ask and Jace shrugs.

"Izzy can't cook for shit and Alec doesn't like to." Jace explains to me and I chuckle, sitting down on top of the counter, I had to jump to reach the counter.

"Ooh, what else can you do?" I say and he turns around to look at me, my tone causing him to raise a brow, I sounded a little but too flirty there.

"Not what I meant. What other hidden talents do you have?" I ask and he chuckles.

"You are just going to have to stick around and find out." Jace responds, handing me a plate of eggs.

"Oh boy," I say and he laughs, sitting down across from me.

"Ooh, eggs." Alec says, sitting down next to Jace and taking a plate of eggs and shoving some into his mouth.

"Alec, what are some of Jace's hidden talents?" I ask and Jace hushes Alec.

"Don't tell her." Jace says and Alec smiles at me.

"Sorry Clary, I am loyal to my brother."He tells me and I groan, eating another bite of my eggs.

"You guys suck." I tell them and Jace smiles.

"Actually, Alec swallows." Jace says with a smirk and Alec's face turns bright red.

"Not funny." Alec smiles with a small smirk and Jace laughs.

"It kinda is." Jace says and a lightbulb goes off in my head.

"Wait, are you gay?" I ask and Alec smiles at Jace, and Jace returns it.

"Wow, give the ginger a prize." Alec says and I roll my eyes, standing up, putting my dirty dishes in the sink. Izzy comes walking into the room, pulling Simon by the hand behind her.

"We need to leave, the bus will be here in lie five minutes." Izzy says and I groan, grabbing my backpack and putting it on. Jace and Alec both stand up, picking up their own bags.

"Are you nervous?" Jace asks me and I shrug. Yes.

"No." I lie and Jace looks into my eyes.

"Liar." He says and I suck in a breath.

"How'd you know?" I ask and he shrugs.

"I saw it in your eyes, just kidding, your hands are shaking." He tells me and I check my hands, they are shaking kind of slowly. I didn't even notice.

"Oh," I say quietly and the bus pulls up.

"You got this, don't worry. I got your back. I'll beat up any guy for you." He tells me with a wink as the twelve of us at our bus stop walk up onto the bus.

"What if a girl messes with me?" I ask and he shrugs, shoving me into a seat, next to Alec, and he sits down on the other side of me.

"Oh boy, we'd have to stick Isabelle on them." Jace says and I laugh.

"Sounds good." I tell Jace, looking past Alec's head and looking out the window as we travel down through the city.

"You look nervous." Alec says and I shrug.

"I'll be ok." I say, elbowing Jace lightly and he slings his arm around my shoulder, pulling me into him.

"I believe in you."


	7. Chapter 7

Clary's POV

"This is hell." I grumble, tossing my new *old* textbooks in my locker and Simon chuckles.

"I don't disagree." He says as someone accidentally bumps into him and he lets out a way over exaggerated groan with a sigh.

"Are you excited for lunch?" Simon asks me and I shrug, elbowing my locker shut and putting my lock back on it.

"I am excited to get out of these dreadful classes, but I don't know if Jace, Izzy, and Alec really want us siting with them. I don't know, I just feel like they are popular and we... aren't. They are fine hanging out with us outside of school, but the inside if school is always a different story." I tell Simon and he shrugs as we walk down the hallway, towards the lunch room.

"Well, at least we have each other." Simon says and I smile.

"Very true." I say, pulling the door open to the lunch room and people all fall silent, watching us carefully, Well this isn't awkward at all. We have a smaller grade so everyone basically knows everyone. That can be a good thing, but mostly a bad thing.

"Hey Fray!" Jace's smooth voice cuts through the heavy silence, he is standing up with a smile, and waving. I smile, leading Simon behind me as we cut through the crowd, walking towards Jace's table. The lunch room begins picking up noise again and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey, you two had the whole lunch room staring at you." Izzy says and I shrug with a nervous laugh, sitting down next to her and Simon sits next to me.

"Fray, you remember Kaelie? Well, this is her older sister Seelie. She is a year older then us." Jace introduces us and I give her a small smile, "hi." These poor girls parents must really hate them, giving then such weird, unusual names.

"Wait, how old is Kaelie then?" I hear Simon asks next to me.

"Our age." Alec answers him and I pull my small lunch out of my bag. I haven't really been into eating.

"Nice to meet y'all." She says with a small southern accent and I stifle a sigh. This is going to sound mean, I don't really care, but I have a feeling her voice is going to drive me insane.

"Yeah." I say, trying not to sound too sarcastic.

We eat lunch in a small group. Jace introduces me to a couple other kids. One of them happens to be Maia, who I already am growing to like, the other is a guy named Jordan. Maia doesn't seem to like Jordan very much.

"So how's school?" Izzy asks me and I shrug.

"It's not much different then my old school, just a little bigger. I don't mind it, but I don't love it." I tell her and she laughs.

"Get a boyfriend, they make everything more fun." Izzy tells me and I hear a voice behind me.

"Oh so she doesn't have a boyfriend, dare I call the saint Jace Herondale a liar?" I hear Sebastian's deep voice behind me. Out of every school in NYC, he has to go to my new one? I notice everyones facial expression change, but Simon and Seelie's. My face darkens with anger and I stand up, finally standing up for myself, and Jace.

"Why do you care? I don't even know you." I snap and a wicked smile comes across his lips. Oh no.

(WARNING LANGUAGE)

"Oh, so now the slut can speak?" Sebastian snails and the group of girls sitting a table over gasps.

"Uh, excuse me," I say surprised, "I haven't done anything other then reject your ass." I snap and he steps closer to me, making me back up a step.

"Not after you lead me on, just like the whore you are." He says, my voice gets caught in my throat, my dad used to call me that.

"Yeah, right, 'cuz me telling you that I didn't want a boyfriend is leading you on!" I snap and he glares over me, opening his mouth to say something, but Alec stands up, to my surprise.

"Enough Verlac, get out of here." Alec says and Sebastian crosses his arms over his chest.

"Or what Lightwood?"

"Or you are going to get your ass kicked by all of us." Izzy snaps, rising to her feet as well, crossing her arms, matching Sebastian's intimidating stance. He turns his attention to her.

"Wow, you are finally caring about someone other then yourself." Sebastian growls and Izzy pulls her hand out, cracking it across his face.

"Go to hell." She snarls and Jace stands up from his seat, setting me behind him and putting his arm out in front of Isabelle.

"Get out of here Verlac, or I am going to be the next one to hit you across the face." Jace says, his voice very calm and very even. Sebastian backs up a bit, hands up.

"I see, have a good day." He says, and I watch the bastard walk away. My hands are shaking in my pockets. Everything that he has said made me think of my father when I made him mad. All of my memories begin to flood back and my vision begins to get blurry with tears.

"Clary!" Isabelle says as I brush past all of my friends and rush into the hallway. I might as well go to the locker room. Nobody should be there, and it's my next class. I clench my fist when I realize that I left my forgot my backpack and everything at lunch. I sit down on the bench, glancing around and I sniffle. I hate guys.

JACE'S POV

"Let me go talk to her." Isabelle says and I shake my head no.

"I'm going to go." I tell her and Izzy throws her hands up in the air with anger.

"Why?" She yells and I continue to shake my head.

"'Cuz I said so. Grab her stuff and bring it with you when you head to PE, I'll be there with her." I tell Izzy and she sighs.

"Fine." She grumbles and I sling my backpack over my shoulder, and walking down my hallway.

I walk up to the girls locker room and cracking the door open.

"Clare?" I ask gently and I hear he sniffle.

"Not now Jace." I hear her say and I just sigh.

"Is anybody else in here?" I yell and when nobody responds, I walk into the locker room, locking the door and checking my phone. We have six minutes. I walk around the room, finding her sitting on a bench, her eyes blotched and red.

"I'm sorry." I tell her and she doesn't look up from her shaking hands.

"You didn't do anything." She says, her voice cracking and I take her shaking hands in each of mine, pulling them into my lap.

"Breathe, nice and easy." I tell her, trying to calm her down but it's not working.

"He called me my dads favorite words." She admits and we both fall silent. Her dad is completely disgusting.

"I'm going to kill Sebastian." I tell her, and she tightens her grip on my hands. Sebastian can't get away with doing this type of shit to her.

"No." She tells me, but I decide to keep pulling. I need to get her mind elsewhere.

"He deserves a solid ass beating." I tell her with a smirk, standing up, and she stands up next to me.

"No." She says again, kind of matching my smile and my alarm begins to beep.

"I got to go. Izzy is bringing your stuff. Come talk to me when you are done." I tell her, giving her hand a final squeeze before leaving the locker room, right before the bell rings. I walk into the boys locker room, dropping my backpack and opening my locker.

"God. Sebastian is such a dick." Simon says, walking into the locker room, him and I being the only ones in the room.

"Yeah." I agree with him as he finds his locker.

"Is Clary ok?" He asks and I nod.

"She's ok, just a little shaken up." I tell Simon and he nods, pulling out his gym clothes.

"Verlac is so dead!" Alec yells, storming into the locker room, followed by a few other guys who don't really know what is going on.

"Why?" I ask, changing shirts.

"The way he talked to Clary, but especially the way he talked to Izzy. Just because she broke up with his worthless ass doesn't give him the right!" He yells, basically foaming at the mouth and punching the locker.

"If he does or says anything else, to any of us, I will rock his shit. I promise." I tell him and he sighs.

"Ok, sounds like a plan." Alec grimaces, beginning to change. I change into my shorts and walk out of the locker room, banging into a small ginger.

"You ok Fray?" I ask her and she sighs, glancing over to see Isabelle walking towards us.

"If he talks to me again..." Clary trails off and Isabelle walks over to us, putting her arm around Clary. I watch Clary tense up quickly, before leaning against her a little bit

"I'm not working out today!" Izzy announces as Alec walks over to us, and I laugh.

"Ok Iz." I say with a smirk, walking into the gym.

*LATER THAT DAY*

"Damn Fray, that's impressive." Jace says over my shoulder as I shade a part of my drawing of the factory next to the Institute.

"I'm good at like on thing." I tell him as I continue to draw my art for homework.

"I'm sure you're good at something else." Jace says, leaning on me a little bit.

"Not really?" I say back and he pokes his head in front of me, covering my sketch book so I have to stop working.

"Can you play a musical instrument?" Jace asks and I shrug.

"I can play the piano. I've always wanted to play the guitar but my father never let me. He claimed it was to masculine." I say and Jace nods, smirking a little but. Sometimes I wish I knew what he was thinking, he makes me nervous when he makes those faces.

"Well, today is your lucky day." Jace says, standing up and I raise my brow. I follow him with my eyes to the closet and he reaches inside, pulling out a really pretty, dark colored guitar. Of course he has a guitar, why wouldn't he?

"Whoa." I say under my breath and he hands it to me. I feel like this is way to expensive for me to be holding.

"Do you know how to play?" I ask him, running my fingers over the strings and he sits down across from me.

"Yeah, my dad taught me before he died when I was twelve. This used to be his guitar. Along with street fighting, I would stand in the subway and sing and play for cash. Here," He says, adjusting the guitar in my hands, "so if you hike the guitar this way and be able to play any cord." Jace tells me, putting his hands over my own, and helping my fingers move against the strings.

"It's easy." He shows me how to strum. We spend about an hour together, he shows me how to play one cord.

"Play a song," I tell him very forcefully and he sighs.

"I haven't played a full song in years." Jace tries to brush me off but I lead forward, bringing my face to his and shoving the guitar into his hands.

"Do it." I say, doing my best to sound like batman and he role his eyes, strumming quickly on the guitar and I lean back on my hands, crossing my legs and listening with a small smile on my face. He plays a short rock song that sounds like Rolling Stones but he doesn't sing, he just hums along. When he finishes, putting the guitar down, I look at him smiling.

"Well that was amazing. That's hidden talent number two." I say with a wink and he laughs.

"I have others, but you'd probably kill me if I tried to show you those." Jace says with a smirk and I roll my eyes.

"Keep your nasty minded thoughts to yourself." I tell him with a smile.

"Funny. I was always told sharing was caring." Jace tells me and there is a knock on the bedroom door. Jace hops to his feet very quick, racing to the closet and lightly putting the guitar inside, shutting the door and walking back towards me. Does he not want anyone to know he still plays?

"Light's out kiddos. Izzy, Alec, and Simon should be back from work soon." Ms Wayland orders us, opening and shutting the door quickly and I yawn, standing up.

"I wanted to take a shower." Jace grumbles and I smile.

"Good, you need one, you stank." I tease and he rolls his eyes.

"Yes, I'm sure I do. I smell like body spray, deodorant, and mangos." Jace says and I cork my brow.

"Why mangos?" I question and he leans forward, shaking his hair in my face and I crinkle my nose. He's not wrong, it smells like mangos, "why mangos?" I ask a second time and he just chuckles.

"I like my mangos." Jace tells me and look that makes me want to challenge him but I put my hands up in surrender instead.

"Sounds good." I say with a smirk and he continues to chuckle; I stand up from the bed.

"Goodnight." I say, kicking his shin lightly and he takes my hand, using me to help himself to his feet.

"I'm going to take a shower, don't wait up and don't tell Ms. Wayland." He tells me with a wink, going to walk away before stopping and looking at me strangely. Sometimes I think I am an alien to him.

"I'm going to try something, please don't kill me." He begs of me and I can't help but go ridged as he walks towards me. He wraps his arms gently around my shoulders, pulling me into a him. I lighten up a bit, putting my arms around his waist, excepting the hug.

"Why would I kill you for hugging me?" I ask into his chest and he laughs.

"You hate physical contact." Jace responds, still embracing me. He's not wrong, I have never likes hugs but this is ok.

"Sometimes." I rest my head on his chest. I've never had much physical contact, especially since my mom died. I will admit, I have kind of missed it.

"Goodnight Jace." I tell him, pulling away and walking over to the dresser, pulling out some shorts and a tank top. I wait for Jace to go into the bathroom before quickly changing. I walk to my bed, climbing up and curling under the covers.

I end up not actually falling asleep until everyone is home and passed out. I check my watch, it is almost four in the morning. By the time I fall asleep, it is almost six in the morning and I have to get up in two hours.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys, I'm really sorry for the shorter chapter, first off, but anyway, I think I should be able to get on a better update schedule!**

 **3 reviews=next chapter**

Clary's POV

"You know Ms. Fray, you have at true talent." My art teacher, Mr. Stephan says, looking over my shoulder at my city scape and Izzy looks at me with a proud smile on her face.

"Thank you." I tell him and he smiles. I got my talent from my mom, she was the most amazing artist I've ever seen.

"Can I enter this in a contest?" He asks me and Izzy makes a noise that sounds like a squeak. My smile gowns to match Mr. Stephan.

"That would be awesome." I tell him, handing the drawing to him and he nods.

"I'll let you know when the showing is." He tells me and I nod. Mr. Stephan walks away and Isabelle gives me a high five.

"What is going on?" Jace asks me as he and Alec walk over to us and I raise my brow.

"You two are in this class?" I say, confused and he laughs, looking at Alec.

"We sit in the back." Alec says and Jace shrugs.

"We both need an art class to graduate but neither of us are very good at it." Jace says and I smile.

"You should tutor him!" Isabelle says, turning her attention to me, "she is really talented." I blush. I am not used to all of this attention or praising.

"You can't really tutor someone in art." Jace says and I nod in agreement.

"Sure you can. Jace it would actually do you some good." Mr. Stephan says, over hearing our conversation and I sigh, looking at Jace.

"I mean, we do live together." I say with a shrug and he purses his lips.

"Teach me your ways." Jace says, ruffling my red curls and I groan, smacking his hand away.

"Come on boys, take a seat." Iz says, patting the seats next to her and Alec sits down next to me, Jace across from him.

We spend the rest of the class talking and working on our group projects. We get released to our last period, Organic Chemistry for me, and I find Simon, sitting down next to him.

"Hey." I tell him with a smile and he returns it.

"How are you doing?" I ask as the teacher comes into the room and he shrugs.

"I'm pretty tired, not gonna lie, and this class is boring the hell out of me." Simon says and I nod my head in agreement.

"I agree man, have you heard or had any contact with your mother?" I ask curiously in a whisper as the teacher begins her lecture and Simon rolls his eyes.

"She doesn't give a damn about me. She was away when I ran away and she's probably lost in bottle like usual now that I'm gone." Simon explains to me and I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to console him, as I begin to take a few notes, trying to keep up with the lecture as well as be a good friend.

"It's for the best. If she hasn't been a good mom to you then she can go to hell. You don't need someone like her in your life when you are as amazing as you are." I explain in a whisper and Simon nods, giving my shoulder a squeeze.

We spend the rest of the class whispering to each other about how much we hate our parent. When i say I hate my dad, I hate him. I truly do. We leave Organic Chem. as soon as the bell ring, God, I am going to come to hate this class. Our teacher has a monotone voice that makes my head spin. Plus, I have had a killer headache since today started, and it just keeps on eating worse.

"Clary!" I hear from behind me and I turn around to see Izzy and Jace making their way towards us.

"From the looks on both your faces, I'm going to guess that you guys hate your last class?" Izzy says with a smirk.

"Yes." We both grumble and Jace laughs, coming to my side and I look up at him.

"You seem happier today." Jace says and I shrug and I look up at him.

"I am, and as long as Sebastian doesn't come near me and I don't get called a slut in front of the whole school I will continue to be." I say, my voice full of opinion and he chuckles.

"If he is smart, he will definitely stay far, far away from you." Jace tells me, not looking at me, instead, looking ahead with very angry eyes. I touch his arm gently, trying to get his attention back to me but it doesn't really work. I get nervous when he looks like this, it always make me think that he is going to make a dumb decision and end up getting himself into trouble.

"Hey." I mumble, continuing to attempt to get his attention. Simon and Izzy are off to the left, having a quiet conversation as we walk through the hallways, so they really aren't going to be any help to me.

"Jace." I say as we walk out of the school, the day is over and we are meeting up with Alec to go home. I squeeze his arm a lot harder this time and he looks down at me, his eyes blazing.

"What?"

"Snap out of it, you look like you are about to kiss someone." I tell him and he lets out a loud sigh, his hard eyes relaxing.

"I'm not." He says plainly and I nod, taking my hands off his arm, Alec comes over to us, waiting with us until our bus arrives, and when it does, we walk together into a small clump. I sit down next to Simon and I rest my head down lightly on his shoulder, looking out the window as we make out way 'home'.

"How are you feeling?" Simon asks me quietly and I shrug.

"Not too hot. I have a headache." I complain and Jace pokes his head over the seat, looking down at us.

"Hey, I just got a text from Luke, he wants us to get over there as soon as humanly possible, I guess it is crazy over there." Jace says and I nod limply on Simon's shoulder.

"You ok?" Jace asks me and I nod again on Simon.

"Yeah," I say quietly and he pats my head.

"Ok." He sits back down on the other side and I let out a yawn.

"Are you ok to work?" Simon asks me and we pull up to our bus stop, all standing up and wondering off the bus, my stomach starting to do back flips.

"Yeah, it is just a headache." I say and Jace ushers us forward.

"Quickly Fray." We go up to the room and the two of us take turns getting dressed. I almost feel to lazy to put my heels on, but I truly need to.

"Come on." Jace tells me, taking me by the hand and basically dragging me behind him towards the street.

"You're gonna pull me over." I whine and he lets go, turning around and giving me a small, shy smile.

"Sorry." He scratches the back of his head and I practice reading signs so I can see the state of my head. My head is KILLING me and my stomach is all jittery, making me feel like I may pass out.

"You look really pale, well, paler then usual." I roll my eyes at his comment and we reach the restaurant, I continue to get more and more dizzy. The restaurant is very busy and I move in a beeline to the back room, feeling like I am going to throw up.

"Clary! Wait up, are you ok?" I hear Jace asks me and I notice two other workers come walking towards me and then there is four of them, then eight of them.

"I don't think so." I say before falling forward.

JACE'S POV

I watch Clary's eyes roll back and her body reaches forward. I lunge towards her, grabbing her and stopping her from smacking her face on the ground, keeping her from hurting herself even more.

"What did you do?" Maia runs over to me asking, alarmed, and I scoop Clary up in my arms.

"Get Luke." I tell her and she runs out of the room. After a minute, Luke comes running into the room.

"What happened?" He asks, very alarmed, and I sigh, adjusting her.

"I have no clue." I admit and he pulls out his car keys and hands them to me.

"Take her to the hospital, out the back. I can't leave now." Luke says and I nod. Maia helps me out the back, and helps me get Clary laid out in the back seat of Luke's SUV.

"Do you want me to come?" Maia asks me and I step into the drivers seat.

"I'll be ok, hold down the fort." I tell her and I shut the drivers door, pulling out of the alleyway and out onto the main road. Since it is New York, traffic is always bad, but since it is an awkward time, traffic isn't that bad.

I arrive at the hospital in about ten minutes, pulling up to the front and run over to Clary's side, pulling her out of the car and rushing her inside.

"Sir?" A nurse questions me and I spit out quickly, "she passed out." I say and the nurse leads me into a room where the doctor is waving.

"What is her name, age, and rough weight?" The doctor says and I lay a limp Clary down on the cot.

"Um, Clary Fray, sixteen I think, and maybe 110 pounds, probably not even." I say and the nurse backs me out of the room.

"Thank you oft all of your help, but you need to leave." She states to close the door in my face.

"Wait is she going to be ok?" I say and the door slams, making me groan. I walk stiffly over to the waiting room and I pull our my phone, calling Izzy.

"Hey Jace, aren't you supposed to be working?" She asks me and I sigh

"Clary passed out at work, I am at the hospital at 118th street." I mumble into the phone and she gasps.

"We will be there in five." She hangs up quickly, making the line go dead. I text her the address, putting my head in my hands.

"God damn it."


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey, so first off, who is just plain all "guest"? They wrote me the most constructive and kindest review I've every gotten, and it is making me really want to improve my story. Please y'all, your reviews matter a lot to me, I always want to know what I can to to make my story better, and I know there is a bunch of y'all following, so let me know what you think!**

 **Four Reviews=Next Chapter**

Jace's POV

I sigh, sitting down next to Izzy, I needed coffee to calm down and to keep myself from falling over from exhaustion, and it isn't even late. Alec is sitting on the other side of me. Simon is letting Izzy use his shoulder as a pillow. Just as my head begins to drop into my hand with drowsiness, a nurse comes walking over to us.

"Hey, you are the group here for Clary Fray right?" She asks us and I nod.

"Ok, one at a time please, she's awake and stable, but she is kind of out of it and in some pain. I don't want to spook her." The buse says and Alec claps my back.

"Go ahead." He tells me and I stand up, giving him a grateful smile, I thought I was going to have to fight Isabelle to be able to see Clary first. I follow the nurse to Clary's room and she opens the door quietly. Clary is lying on a cot, in a hospital gown with a blanket on top of her and she is picking at the IV in her arm.

"Don't pick dummy." I say, walking over to her as the nurse leaves the room and Clary perks up.

"Hey my knight in shining armor. I heard you brought me in." She says weakly as I sit down in a chair next to her.

"Well yeah, I couldn't just let you die," I say, trying to get a smile out of her, but her expression remains daized, "so, what happened?" She shrugs.

"Doctor claims I passed out due to lack of sleep and stress." She says, continuing to pick at her IV.

"Quit it." I tell her, swiftly grabbing her hand and holding it in mine so she will stop grabbing at the needle. I can tell she is uneasy.

"So what are you going to do?" I ask her and once more she weakly shrugs. She is definitely uneasy and very out of it.

"The doctor gave me sleeping pills to take before I go to bed to help regulate my sleep. They also said that when my IV runs out I can go back to work." Clary says and I roll my eyes.

"Clary you just passed out and it is already 8:00. You should just go home and get some rest." I tell her, giving her hand a squeeze.

"I'll be ok," Clary says with an eye roll and I sigh.

"No." I say, making my voice firm and she takes her free hand and flicks the needle.

"Yes." She Narrows her eyes at me, I can tell she's getting annoyed.

"Fine, but I am coming back with you." I tell her and she sighs.

"Okay." She caves and I chuckle.

"I need to leave, three other people, well I guess two, are very excited to see you. Alec doesn't care very much, but Izzy and Simon do." I say, pulling my hand out of hers, standing up and stretching. I leave the hospital room and tapping Izzy in.

After Izzy, Simon goes, and even Alec goes in breifly to have a conversation with Clary, nice. Within ten minutes, Clary comes walking out of the hospital room, dressed up in her work clothes, and carrying her clothes. She flashes a small smile.

"I guess I'm ready to go." She says and I roll my eyes. Alec let's out a laugh and says, "good to see you up and alive."

"Are you seriously going back to work?" Simon asks her and she sighs.

"Yes, and I'll be ok." She says and I laugh at her response. Clary begins to walk, kind of crooked, and she brushes past me, tapping my arm.

"You ready?" She asks me, giving a look that tells me not to argue with her.

"Yes'm." I say with a fake country accent, leading her out of the hospital and towards Luke's car, bidding goodbye to everyone.

"You really, really scared me." I tell her, pulling the car into the street.

"I scared myself." She tells me as I drive down the road to our restaurant.

"Are you sure you want to work?" I ask Clary as we pull to the restaurant, parking Luke's car in the back.

"Yes Jace." She says as we step out of the car and she continues, "I feel perfectly..." She trails off, her eyes going wide as he looks towards the street.

"Clary." I say, getting nervous. Is she going to pass out again? I look to where she was looking, but I don't see anything in the street. I walk towards her, but she steps back away from me, her eyes wide.

"Go inside." Her voice is cold, grabbing me by my hand and tugging me behind her towards the back room of the restaurant and lunging towards the trash can.

CLARY'S POV

I hunch over the waste basket, feeling as if I am going to throw up. I hear Jace run over to me, coming up to me and he crouches down next to me. He doesn't say anything, he just brushes my hair back and rubs small circles on my back as I cough.

When I empty my stomach and calm down enough to control my breathing, I go to stand up. Jace puts his hands up underneath my arms and he tugs me up to my feet, not letting go of me.

"Why don't we just go home, I'll go bring the keys to Luke and then we can leave." Jace says and the thought of going outside makes my heart begin to pound.

"I can't," my voice cracks and my mouth goes dry. I feel myself go ridged in Jace's hand and worry crosses his face.

"I'll be right back." Jace says, worry evident on his face still, as he walks out of the room, Luke's keys still in hand. He returns just a couple minutes later, without Luke's keys and he grabs my hand lightly in his own, trying to bring me close to the door.

"No! I can't go out there!" I yell, breathing heavy and Jace puts his hand on my face. Any other time, I would have been very aware of his hand against my skin, but I am in too much of a panic to register it.

"What did you see?" He asks me quietly, trying to get my eyes to meet his, but I refuse.

"We can't," I sniff, "go out there." I say, my voice shaking with fear and a tear slips down my cheek. How did he find me?

"Clare, I will protect you from whatever is out there, but I need you to tell me what you saw and what I am protecting you from." Jace pleads with me but I continue to pull back away from him, trying to deadweight him and slide to the ground.

"Please." I say in a whisper and he taps my cheek once with him hand before letting go of my hand and walking out the back door while I screech out, "no!" I heave some shaky breaths, running after him and I feel some fear taking over me as I look around frantically, not seeing Jace or him.

"Clare." Jace says behind me and I can't help but let out a scream of fear.

"Nobody is here Clary, we need to go home." Jace says, pulling me into a hug and a son racks through my body, making me fall into Jace, he wraps his arms tightly around me.

"My dad was here. I'm not going crazy, I swear he was here." I choke out and he hugs me tighter, stroking my hair.

"If he was here, he is gone now." Jace whispers into my ear and I clutch his shirt.

"Breathe." He says and I nod into his chest.

"We should leave." My voice croaks out and he pulls me so I am in front of him, following me towards the street, and he keeps a hand on my side, making sure I don't go anywhere. I oook around constantly, feeling myself go ridged everywhere when I see anything white.

"Clary, keep going." Jace tells me as we make a right hand turn.

We reach the Institute, walking inside and making our way up the stairs. As soon as Jace let's go of my hips, I rush into the our bedroom and I lunge into the bathroom, to fast to let Jace grab onto me and stop me. I pull the bathroom door shut and lock it quickly so nobody else can get in and I hunch down onto the floor, pulling my knees to my chest.

"Clary?" Simon asks, banging on the door and I try to stabilize my voice and my breathing. I can't let anyone else know the state that I'm in.

"I'm ok, I'm just gonna take a shower." I lie, turning on the shower to mask the noise of me crying and to make my lie more believable. I pull my heals off.

"Dumb ass shoes." I groan, throwing them across the small bathroom and they smack into the wall.

Seeing my dad is enough to make me spiral out of control. Even the faint presence of him makes me freak out. God, why am I so weak.

IZZY'S POV

"We should do something. She's been in there for a long while and I am starting to get nervous." I say and Jace let's out a sigh. We asked him what was wrong with her but he refused to tell us, something about respecting her privacy.

"I'll do it." Jace says, going to open the bathroom door but I grab his hand.

"Jace, no. I get hat you are in love with her or whatever but let me do it. Sometimes a girl just needs to talk to another girl." I explain to him, my voice a little sharper then I meant for it and he raises his brow.

"I am not in love with her." Jace tells me with an eye roll. Simon watches us with a large curiosity, and even Alec seems minorly interested.

"Ok, one, bullshit, and two, she needs to talk to a girl." I tell him and he sighs, backing away from the bathroom door, raising his hands.

"Fine." Jace caves angrily and I flash him a smile before walking to the bathroom door, banging lightly.

"Clary, it's Isabelle, please let me in." I say in between knocks and I hear a muffled voice on the other side of the door.

"No, I'm ok. I'll be out in a little." Clary responds and I roll my eyes one before kicking the door handle, knocking it loose and I hear Clary let out a yelp. I walk quietly into the room, seeing Clary sitting against the wall with her knees pulled up to her chest, her head resting in her hands. I shut the door behind me, giving the boys a look that says stay put and don't follow.

I crouch down on the floor in front of Clary, taking my hand and brushing her hair out of her face, causing her to look up and I smile.

"You can tell me what is wrong." I try to convince her to open up, putting my hand on her knee. I've never been very good at comforting people.

"Nothing." She says, very obviously lying but she lifts her head from her hands and relaxes her body a little bit.

"Did Jace do something?" It's the only think I could guess. I hate to think about Jace doing something to hurt Clary, but I have to ask. Maybe she liked him and he rejected her? I think Jace likes her in return, my intuition is rarely wrong. Maybe he made a move on her and she freaked out?

"God no, he didn't do anything. It's just... I saw someone who I thought was going to hurt me and I freaked out, I just didn't know what to do. It brought back some very bad memories." Clary says and I nod, making sure she knows I am listening.

"And who did you see?" I ask gently and her eyes go hard, pouring into mine.

"My abusive, dick of a dad."


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys, this is a pretty important chapter, so enjoy.**

 **Three reviews = next chapter**

Jace's POV

Isabelle walk's Clary out of the bathroom, sitting her down on a bunk bed and touching her face lightly before walking towards the door. She gives me a look to stay put, and not follow.

Izzy comes back into the room with a cup of something steaming, handing it to Clary before turning to us, meaning Alec, Simon and I.

"Boy's, out." Isabelle orders us and I give her a look, but at the end of it, we listen, leaving the bedroom and Izzy follows behind us. I guess we about to get a talk.

"She ran into her dad, or I guess she just thought she saw him, but she is really shaken up. I am worried that she is going to fly off the handles and spiral out of control. I need the three of you to be calm but be there for her. Judging from everything she told me, her relationships with men aren't great." Izzy says and my jaw drops, she actually got Clary to open to her.

"Of... of course." Simon stutters out and Alec nods quietly.

"What can I do to help?" I ask quietly, not trying to bring attention to ourselves from other rooms, Iz just sighs.

"Just make her feel safe, because right now she really doesn't."

The four of us walk silently back into the room, and to our surprise, Clary is nowhere to be seen. Her drink is resting neatly on the floor and the window is wide open. She ran, of course she ran, but where the hell did she go?

"Split up, we need to find her," before she gets herself hurt. I don't say the last part, but I sure as hell think it. Before anybody else has the chance to respond, I go out the window, trying to retrace her steps. This is probably a bad idea, but I don't care.

CLARY'S POV (TRIGGER WARNING, YOUVE BEEN WARNED)

At this point, I don't remember how I got the bottle of whiskey, or how I managed to get up onto the roof of the Institute, but I did, and I don't care. The whiskey numbs the pain and the fear of the height, and well, at least if I fall, it'll kill me.

Isn't it great to see what just the sight of my dad can do to me? Imagine what me living him was like, I was a damned mess. It's been a long time I used liquor to numb the pain, but I didn't see any other way to keep myself 'here'.

The sad thing is, me using the liquor, the whiskey, it makes me just like my dad. That's what truly scares me the most out of all of this. I don't know if I really want to die, but I'm sure that I never want to go back with my asshole dad again.

I'm suck a weak bitch, I just saw my dad and now I'm in tears, getting drunk on a roof, and hoping to fall of. How did it come to this?

"You don't think she is running around the City do you?" I hear Izzy's distinct voice and I take another swig of the spicy drink.

"No, she's here somewhere, I know it." I hear Jace's deep New York voice and I roll my eyes. He shouldn't care this much.

"Moron," I attempt to whisper but it doesn't work very well.

"I heard that Clary." Jace says and I groan out, "balls," I breath out before saying, "good for you."

"Are you drunk?", "where are you?" I hear the two of them say but I can't differ between who said what.

"Possibly, and come find me." I obviously slur and I hear a grunt, "split up, Simon and Alec are searching the house."

I take a long drink of the whiskey, I am going to need this. I sit in silence, trying to subdue the rain fall of tears falling down my cheek, continuing to chug the liquor.

"How in the hell did you manage to get up here?" Jace asks, pulling himself up onto the roof, and I take a gulp of the alcohol.

"And where did you get _that_?" He says, coming over to me and trying to pluck the bottle out of my hand, but I move away clumsily.

"Doesn't matter, what do you want?" I say, slurring all my words. I'm trying to sound as sober as possible but I'm not doing a good job.

"Why don't we stop drinking and head inside." Jace says but I turn around go look away from him, taking another swig of the burning liquid.

"How about no." I say back.

"Clare, please." Jace actually begs me and I roll my eyes.

"Jace, no. You know what, I don't need your saving!" I snap out of nowhere, taking Jace aback.

"I'm not trying to save you." Jace responds and I stand up, trying to balance myself, but not handling it well.

"Really? Because the whole I'm I've been here with you, I've felt an awful like you are trying to fix me, be my knight in shining armor. I'm not a damsel in distress!" I growl, stumbling a little and dropping the bottle of whiskey and it shatters around me.

"Fuck!" I groan and Jace grabs my arm, making me flinch, and tug back but he doesn't let go of me.

"Why don't we go down to the ground, I promise you can keep yelling at me." Jace says and I narrow my eyes at him.

"Why don't you just let me make my own decision, you can leave, but I'm staying. You're just a guy who I met at a bar and ended up behind roommates with. Stop acting like you are something more to me, stop trying to fix me. I'm not broken!" My voice cracks and I am unable to keep the single tear from rolling down my face.

"It sucks that it took you getting drunk to admit the truth to me, but I'm not getting off of this roof until you come with me." Jace says, letting go of my arm and I wipe away the continuous flow of tears. Damn this blonde hair asshole.

"Well since you made me drop my liquor, I don't really have a reason to be yo here anymore. We might as well." I cave, stepping through the glass, not caring about cutting my feet and stumbling across the roof, aiming towards the fire escape.

"Clare, let me help you." Jace says and I glare at him as I climb down. I move awfully sloppily down, reaching the bottom and falling against the grass hard and I let out a frustrasted yell. Jace comes to my aid, helping me up and I groan, shoving him away, I really don't want his help. He rolls his eyes, grabbing me by the hips, making me yelp, and he throws me over his shoulder, starting off towards the house.

"There is no way you are going to be able to get up the stairs like this." Jace says and I pound on his back, pretty hard, I'd like to think, but he doesn't even flinch.

If I put you down are you going to run?" He asks me as we reach the top of the stairs and I groan, feeling my face to make sure I am no longer crying.

"No." I respond and he drops me lightly on the ground. He watches me carefully and walks behind me into the bedroom, and I get looks from both Simon and Alec.

"I don't wanna hear it from any of y'all." I slur and I stumble over to my bed.

"Are your drunk?" Simon asks me and I flip him the bird, climbing I to my bed, dress still on and I hear Simon sigh.

JACE'S POV

"Yeah, she is." I answer Simon's question and I click the lights out, "why don't we all go get some sleep." I try to be the voice of reason before sending Iz a text, letting her know what is up. She may still be looking for Clary. Thank God it is Friday and we don't have school or work tomorrow. Clary is going to have a wicked hangover.

I grab clothes from my dresser, going to the the bathroom and I change quickly, before walking over to mine and Clay's bunk bed. I stop brefily to check on her, and she is actually sound asleep. That's a first. I climb into bed and wait up for Izzy. I want to make sure everyone is home safer before I go to bed.

I try to sleep, but sleep never comes. What Clary said to me has my head spinning, and makes me feel sick to my stomach m. I've tried so hard to make her trust me and to make her comfortable, and none of it is because I want to change her.

Evebtually I drift off into sleep, it would've really sucked if I didn't.

I wake up to a shake and my eyes fly open. Ms. Wayland is on the ladder, trying to get my attention.

"Hey Jace, I know it's early but we need to have a chat." I nod, still drowsy with sleep and I stand up, following her out of the roo and down the stairs to her office.

"So, I found you guys a small, old house, right outside downtown. It has enough room to accommodate the five of you and give you each your own bedroom and allow for some privacy. It's a bit more pricey, 1200 a month, and you guys will have to put down two months rent in advance, so 2400." Ms. Wayland says and I pull her into a hug. This woman has been like a mother to me for the past 5 years, and she is about to change my life. In the potwe have, made up of nearly five of us from the past year of working, we have almost 12,000 saved up for just rent.

"When do we move in?" I ask, getting giddy for the first time in a while.

"As long as everyone else is on board, I will put the down payment down tomorrow and you five would move in after school on Monday. She says and I let out a sigh.

"That is amazing, thank you so much!"

"We can all go out to lunch today and we can have a chat about everything." I nod, puling away from her and she goes, "Why don't you go wake everyone up." She says and I nod, leaving her office and I make my way back up to our bedroom. Izzy and Simon are already up so I make my way over to Alec first, shaking him awake.

"Ms. Wayland asked me to wake you guys up." I hufe then exciting news, walking carefully over to Clary who is still passed out.

Clary and I need to work out our issues before we move into our new place. I take a deep breath, brushing Clary's hair back away from her face, smiling a little when she stirs. I shake her awake, and her eyes fly open and she shoots up before letting out a groan. She puts her hand to her head and groans out, "ow my head."

"Hey Clare, Ms. Wayland wants everyone up and we need to go talk." I tell her and she nods, standing up pretty quickly and she puts a hand on my arm, before looking down at herself. She is still in her work dress and she flushes a light pink.

"Are you ok?" I ask her and she nods stiffly. She let's go of my arm, she walks weirdly over to the dresser, getting a change of clothes, and walking over to the bathroom. After she changes, she walks over to me and nods. We walk a little bit down the hallway so we are away from everyone. I put Clary in between the wal and I so she doesn't fall over.

"What do you remember from yesterday?" I ask and she sighs.

"Everything," she says. Que awkward silence, "Jace, I'm really sorry. I truekt didn't mean anything that I said to you." She says, putting a hand on my cheek and I sigh.

"Clare. I really need for you to hear this. You don't need to be fixed, you are absolutely amazing. Everything about you. I am so sorry if I have ever made you think that you are anything other." I tell her and her face flushed light pink.

"I'm really not." She says, pulling her hand off of my face, hanging it down by her side.

"You are kind, strong willed, you challenge people, especially me, and you have the best corks that make you, you. Like the way you draw with your left hand, but you write with you right. You twirl your hair around your finger when you are concentrating, and when you take orders at work, you always write with one eye closed." I tell her some of the best and the smallest details I have noticed about her, and she continues to blush.

"You've noticed all of these things about me?" She asks and I nod.

"How?"

"Well, even though it pains me to admit it, I care about you Fray." I say with a smile on my face, "even though you are a massive pain in my ass." I tell her and she laughs, falling fiestas and pulling me into a hug, catching me by surprise. I gingerly wrap my arms back around her, as if, if I move to fast I may break her. Everyone of my nerves are on edge, but I do t mind the feeling.

"Thank you." She says, pulling out of my arms and I feel as if I miss her already.

"For what?" I ask as she turns away from me and goes to walk away. She looks over her shoulder at me.

"For caring, I'm going to go look around for Advil." She says, waving and walking slowly down the stairs. She handles hangovers really well I guess.

I smile to myself once more before walking into my bedroom, getting the attention of everyone.

"I'll tell Clary when she returns, and we are going to get the rest of the information when we head out to lunch with Ms. Wayland, but I have great news." I say and by now everyone is playing their upmost attention.

"We got a house!" I say and Alec smiles, giving me a fist bump and a hug, and Izzy jumps into Simon's arms with a excited yell.

"We did it." Alec says onto my ear and I nod, "yeah we did."


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys, this is an important chapter, review up and let me know what you think!**

"Clary, did you find the Advil?" Maia asks me, coming into the kitchen and I slide lightly off the counter, landing softly.

"No." I grumble and she laughs, helping me look for it, "why do you need it?"

"Kinda hung over." I tell her and she laughs again as I smile.

"Yikes, did you drink your feels away?" She asks and I shrug.

"How'd ya know?" I respond curiously, she isn't wrong at all.

"We've all done it once or twice, especially everyone in this house." She says before yelling out, "ahah!" She stands up triumphantly with the Advil, walking over to me, going to hand it to me, but she quickly pulls it back.

"Wait, what is going on between Jace and you?" She asks and I raise my brow at her.

"Nothing." I respond and she sighs, rolling her eyes, pulling the Advil further away from me.

"Honestly, I don't believe you. I've known Jace since forever, and all of those years, I have never seen him look at someone the way he looks at you." Maia says and I huff.

"Honestly, guess what, I don't care what you believe. Nothing is going on between us, and even if there was, I wouldn't tell you. Sure, we are co workers and we talk sometimes, but we aren't friends." I tell her, snatching the Advil out of her hands and I pop a pill.

"That boy may be pretty fucked up, but he is one of the kindest people I know, don't hurt him more then he already is. If you doyou'll be talking to me." Maia says and I roll my eyes, bumping into her as I walk off, "sorry, but I don't like bing threatened." I snap; my voice hard, and I walk tenderly up the stairs. My feet are killing me.

"That wasn't a threat!" She yells at me and I go up the stairs, stopping at the top and glaring back down at her, "it sure as hell sounded like it." I growl, walking into the room, and Izzy runs over to me, pulling me into a hug, "we did it!"

"What did we do?" I ask, pulling away from her and Jace comes up behind me, putting his hand on my shoulder and whispering in my ear, "I heard that you and Maia argued." I roll my eyes, damn word travels so far here. I pull away from the two of them and I throw my hands up.

"What did we do?" I ask and Alec smiles.

"We got a house." Simon says with a shit eating grin on his face and my eyes light up, turning around to the rest of the group for assurance.

"Yep!" Alec says excitedly and I give him a high five. This might actually be a good thing. If I keep moving around I will be less likely to be found by my dad; just the thought of him puts a sour taste in my mouth. I'm not really willing to go outside anytime soon, my dad is most likely waiting for me right outside my door.

"We have lunch with Ms. Wayland in about an hour to go over all the detail." Jace explains and I nod, feeling fear bubble up in my stomach. I see out of the corner of my eye, Jace staring intently at me, and I look at him, knowning my face giving away exactly what I am thinking.

"We need to go talk, part two." Jace says and I groan.

"But we already talked today." I complain and he laughs, grabbing me by the hand and tugging me out of the room, making the pain in my foot escalate.

"I saw that look when I said we were going out to lunch." Jace says and I groan, my foot throbbing, almost worse then my head, and I move nervously from side to side.

"Can we go somewhere and talk in private?" I ask him and he nods, leading me back into the bathroom, slower this time and my foot hurts less. He shuts the door and I jump lightly up into the counter, causing a sting again in my foot, and I watch him carefully.

"I'm worried about my dad finding me, us actually, but if he realizes that you have been helping me, i just don't want any of you to be hurt." I say and he puts a hand on my knee, making my face flush, and he smirks. He knows what reactions he can get from me.

"Nobdoy is going to hurt me, and I'll be damned, I'm sure as hell nobody is going to lay a hand on you." He tells me, his gold eyes burning so fiercely, I'm worried he may catch fire.

"I don't want to hear you say that you are scared that you're dad is going to hurt you when you are with me. I am not going to let anything happen to you." Jace tells me and I shake my head slowly, urging myself to calm down.

"Ok." I breathe out and Jace walks forward so he is standing between my legs, and he lays his hand on my shoulder, saying, "it is ok to be afraid, but I promise you that you don't need to be when you are with me." I nod slowly, and a smirk comes across Jace's face.

"What did you and Maia argue about?" He asks and I shrug.

"We didn't really argue about anything. We got along fine until the very end, she said something to me, I got annoyed, and it just, kinda, went down hill from there." I say and he continues smirking.

"What'd she say?"

"She was telling me that if I ever hurt you, I would end up talking to her." I say and he raises his brow at me.

"Wait, she thinks you are going to hurt me? Whatever that means." He asks and be backs out from between my legs, leaning back against the wall.

"I really don't know. I got annoyed because I took it as a threat. Does she have feelings for you? It seemed like it." I can't help the wave of jealously rack through my body.

"I don't think so, we dated about nine months ago, but we didn't really get alone well. It was just way to awkward. Even if she does, it doesn't really matter anyway." Jace says and I cork my brow with confusion.

"Why does it matter? I mean if she has feelings for you, shouldn't you at least consider them?" I ask curiously, I don't really know why I care so much.

"Because." He responds and I roll my eyes.

"That's not a real answer, because why?"

"Because of you." He says and my breath catches in my throat.

"Huh?" Is all I can manage, and he takes a couple of steps towards me, coming back between my leg and putting his hands on either side of my face, making me blush and literally stop breathing. He hesitates breifly before pulling my head up gently and he lightly presses his lips to mine. I lose all the breath in my body, and I flinch quickly, almost shrinking away from Jace, trying to relax. Jace notices my surprise, mistakes it for discomfort, and pulls away, looking nervous.

"Did I hurt you? I'm sorry. I should have asked before doing that." He says, hands frozen still on my face and I roll my eyes, struggling to hide my smirk.

"Shut up Jace." I tell him, and his face changes from nervous to confused as I grab him by the shirt and pull him back down to him, continuing our strange kiss. I don't have a clue what I am doing, but I am doing my best, and this feels right. I pull my hands off of his chest and he removes his hands off of my face, wrapping them around my waist as our lips moves softly against each other. I don't know what I expected my first kiss to be like, but I can tell Jace is being very gentle with me.

He accidentally pulls me towards him even more, making me start to slip off the counter, so I jump down, landing very rough. I feel an unbearable amount of pain shoot up my body, starting from my foot, and I let out a scream of surprise and pain, falling down a little.

"What?" Jace asks in alarm and I wince again, trying to slide down to the floor, taking away some of the pain, and Jace comes down next to me.

"What happened?" Jace asks me and I glance down a my foot, wincing when I see the large shard of glass and the new flow of blood. How did I get glass in my foot?

"Damn Clary, you just can't keep yourself out of trouble." Jace mumbles, lifetime me up to my feet and he lifts, literally lifts, me up onto the counter. He takes my foot in his hands, before pursing his lips and looking at my foot.

"I need Alec's help on this, stay here." Jace orders me and I roll my eyes.

"Yeah like I was going anywhere." I say after him and he smiles, walking out of the room and leaving the door wide open. Yikes, if someone sees me, I'm going to have a lot of questions to answer.

I may have stepped on some glass and got it lodged in my foot when I so stupidly got drunk and walked through glass. I groan, picking at my foot, making a hissing sound and when the glass shifts a little bit.

"Clary, quit picking." Jace says, coming into the room and Alec follows behind him.

"Welcome back, how was the hangover." Alec asks and I point down at my foot.

"The hangover IS obviously not great." I say and he walks over to me, picking up my foot and he makes a strange noise.

"Jace, I'm going to pull it out, cover her mouth and when I get the glass out, put a cloth on it, it will bleed." Alec says and Jace covers my mouth with this hand and I give him a look.

"I'm sorry, but if you scream Ms. Wayland is going to want to know why and what happened and you are going to have to explain about you getting drunk." Jace says and I grab onto his arm as I nod to Alec.

He uses tweezers to pull the glass out and it takes what feels like forever to pull it out. I continue to groan and make sounds of pain into Jace's hand and he watches me with regretful eyes. Alec finally gets the glass out and Jace presses the towel to it, taking his hand off my mouth.

"I'm going to go get bandages. They're downstairs in the kitchen." Alec says, walking out of the bathroom and I let out a groan, falling back against the mirror.

"I'm sorry Clary." Jace says for the second time and I sigh, sitting back up brushing his blonde hair out of his eyes.

"Don't be, I am the one who did something stupid." I respond and he laughs, lifting my bloody foot up on the counter and he puts it in the sink and putting the water on it, making me hiss.

"I can do this, ya know." I say and he laughs, putting the bar of soap in my hand.

"Fine tough guy, scrub it clean. Plus, I don't mind helping you." I smile, putting the soap on the wound. This glass had really bad timing, and now I have to sit in the sink and scrub my feet while Jace cleans up a pool of blood. Romantic.

"You'd better be able to walk, we need to have a very important conversation with Ms. Wayland." He says to me as Alec walks in as I begin to dry it off.

"What would I do without you Alec?" I ask and he smiles, starting to wrap my foot.

"Not have a gay friend. And bleed to death." He says and I chuckle.

"Awe, he admitted to being my friend." I say punching his shoulder lightly and he turns towards Jace.

"I shouldn't have said that." Alec says, putting the first aid kid under the sink and he nods to me.

"You're all good, I'm going to go get ready for lunch." Alec says and I laugh, hopping off the counter, but only landing on my good foot.

"How does it feel?" Jace asks me and I test it out some. There is a dull throbbing paint, but it is manageable.

"Not bad." I say with a shrug and Jace makes his way over to me, closing the distance the small bathroom provided in two steps.

"Do I need to constantly worry about you, Fray?" Jace says with a playful tone, backing me up to the wall.

"No, I'll just keep you on your toes." I say with a wink, going under this arm and slandering out of the room. My foot is kind of tender, but it is not bad. I go into the bedroom, trying to avoid Izzy so I don't need to tell her that I kissed her brother. I really don't want to tell any of them yet, I should at least wait until we move so they can hate me after.

"Clary, go get dressed, we need to leave soon." Izzy tells me and I nod, pulling out jeans and a nicer blouse, I only have two. I go into the bathroom, getting dressed, brushing my teeth and my hair before braiding it. I brush on very little makeup, trying to hide my lack of sleep. I didn't take my sleeping pills last night because I didn't want to mix drugs and booze.

I walk back into the room and I yawn, bumping into Jace as he makes his way into the bathroom. He mumbles a sorry and I walk over to my bunk bed and putting my now clean clothes away in my dresser. Jace walks out of the bathroom and Simon dishes in. We are all rushing to get ready, we don't want to keep Ms. Wayland waiting.

It's really just kind of hitting me that Jace and I kissed. I kind of knew that our relationship wasn't normal, I really don't know what we are though. Friends don't kiss, especially not like that.

Jace comes over to me, standing next to me at the dresser, saying, "we should talk about what happened before we had to preform surgery on your foot." Jace says to me and I shrug.

"We've been talking a lot today, lets go to lunch and we can talk after." I say, if we talk now, lunch may be very awkward, and I don't need that.

After everyone is ready, we all head down the stairs to go let Ms. Wayland know we are ready.

"Nice hair Fray." Jace tells me, reaching forward and tugging on my braid as we wait for Ms. Wayland to grab her purse so we can head out.

Lunch was productive, we chatted about the house and all of the fun stuff that come along with owning it. Of course everyone is excited to finally be making progress, but I struggle to remain focused during the lunch, from both Jace and worrying about my dad coming up behind me and killing me, but sadly, mostly Jace.

This is going to sound bad, but I kind of really want to jump Jace's bones, and I don't really know why. I think it is just because he is hot or that he is paying attention to me, most likely both. Welcome to Clary Fray's mind, the basic teenage girl who just wants attention from a hot guy.

"Focus." Isabelle says, kicking me under the table, making me zone back in, listening to Ms. Wayland drown on and on about following rules. I yawn, trying super hard to not look bored, bur I really am.

Ms. Wayland finishes her long chat and we all chip in to pay, even though Ms. Wayland argues with us about it. We leave the restaurant and we begin the short walk home. My foot is still sore but it is nowhere near the pain that i felt when I landed after I jumped off the counter.

"You didn't pay attention at all." Jace comes up behind me and I shudder.

"Nope. I was just thinking about some other things." I say and he chuckles.

"What were you thinking about?" He asks me curiously, brows raised and a smug smile plastered on his face.

"About how I was really hoping my dad wouldn't pop out of nowhere and kill me. And you." I say that last part with a smile on my face, and he continues to smile.

"Ooh, were you thinking dirty thoughts at lunch, Fray?' He tease and my face flushes a violent shade of pink, and his brow sky rockets up.

"Wait, you were? His tone radiates surprise and I vigorously shake my head.

"God, no. Just about how much you surprised me." I say quietly and he smiles.

"Oh you mean when I kissed you?" Jace says, just a little loud and I punch his chest as Izzy turns around to look at us, mouth wide open.

"Relax Iz, it is juts another rock album." I say, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

"Oh, mhm.: She says and she rolls her eyes, turning back around. I glare up at Jace, but he just smiles back down at me.

JACE'S POV-

I finally bucked up enough to kiss Clary, and she didn't kill me. It was just the cherry on top of a very good day. I am glad Clary and Simon are just as excited to move out of the rest of us, it shows that they are really on our side.

I know that Clary is stressing out , I can tell. She looks somewhat wild as we walk through the street, almost wild, her eyes are wide and darting around; I worry so much about her. She flinches roughly as I tap her arm, drawing her out of her trance. Damn, and I though I had daddy issues, I have nothing on her.

"Huh?" She says, glancing around and she grains, running a hand over the top of her head.

"Sorry, I just got lost in thought." She says, cheeks turning pink as we reach the Institute.

"It was about your dad, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it is just hard to believe I am safe when I know that my dad is out here, watching me." She says, cringing a little when she says dad, and we walk into the Institute. I go to respond, but Ms. Wayland cuts me off.

"Each of you head up to the attic, get a box of yourself, and go ahead and start packing up all of your things." She says and I nod. The five of us venture up the stars and move towards the attic, I have never been up here before.

"I don't blame you, you can't just get rid of anxiety." I tell her and she lets out a sigh.

"I could take meds." She offers and my eyes fly wide open.

"No!" I yell, medication, especially prescription us a rough spot for me.

"Ok, maybe not." She responds, walking strangely behind Alec and into the attic. The fact that she is on sleeping pills is bad enough. She really doesn't need to be mixing that with anything else.

I enter bend the attic behind Clary and my breathing speeds up. The attic is dark, and low, and very crowded. It reminds me of the room where the nuns used to lock me when I challenged their faith, after they beat me. I feel myself begin to get hot with nervousness and Clary watches me with caution.

"Jace, get out, I'll get you a box." Alec orders me knowingly, and I nod, not needing him to tell me twice. I move quickly out of the room, sighing. I lean against the wall of the stairwell, breathing quickly and heavy and Clary limps funkily out of the room, coming towards me and I squeeze my eyes shut, tilting my head back against the wall, trying to calm myself down. Bad memories are coming flooding back.

"Jace, what's wrong?" I hear Clary asks, coming over and touching my face lightly.

"Nothing, I'm ok." I keep my eyes squeezed tightly shut and she rubs her thumb over my jaw, making me shiver, and I open my eyes slightly, letting out a sigh.

"You are not ok, tell me what's going on." She asks me and I look down into Clary's worried eyes.

"Just some bad memories came back to me when we went into the attic." I explain and she continues to run her thumb over my jaw, making me continue to shiver.

"Lay it on me." She tells me, removing her hand from my face and taking my hand.

"So, whenever I was especially bad in the nuns eyes, they would chain me up in the smallest, darkest room they could find, beat me with a belt or rod, and lock me in." I start, accidentally allowing my voice to break. She goes to say something but I continue.

"They would leave me there for hours, sometimes days. The longest I was in there was for eleven days. I think. They only let me out when i tried to," I drop mu voice, "uh, hang myself with the chains." I say, pulling my neckline of my t-shirt to the side, pointing at a large scar shaped like two chain links.

"I know me saying I'm sorry won't do anything, but for what it's worth, I am sorry." She says to me, making me smile, and she goes up on her toes, kissing my beck where my scar is lightly and I continue to smile.

She pulls away, looking at my scar and I put my hand under her jaw, tilting her head up to look at me.

"Go get your box." I tell her and she gives me a weary look.

"Are you sure you are ok? I don't mind waiting with you, Izzy can get my box." She tells me and I shrug, removing my hand from her face.

"I'll be fine." I tell clary and she sighs, walking off back into the attic, and I lean back agains the wall, letting out a long sigh and closing my eyes.


	12. Chapter 12

Clary's POV

I walk roughly through the hall, my foot has been bothering me because I decided to wear boots today, pinching my newly forming scab.

"Nice limp angel!" I hear Sebastian's cold voice from behind me, but I pay no attention to him. I flip my hair towards him, flipping him the bird over my shoulder, not even glancing twice as I walk inside my final period, art. My face feels flush and my temper feels flared as I wander over to my table with my friends.

"You seem angry." Alec says as I drop down into my chair next to Izzy.

"Any encounter with Sebastian Verlac is enough to put me in a bad mood." I growl as Jace comes into view, sitting down next to Alec.

"He talked to you?" Jace says angrily and Alec puts his hand on his shoulder.

"Easy tiger." Alec says I sigh.

"All of three words." I respond, and Jace sighs, pulling out a sketchbook, that he has yet to use since I've known him.

"I have no idea what I am doing for my project, hell, I don't even know what the project is. Clary, you are a shitty tutor." Jace says and I roll my eyes.

Our relationship is a little bit weird. We haven't kissed again, but we are a bit more touchy, and a bit more over protective, but as far as I know, aren't dating; I wouldn't mind if we were though.

"Sorry, I'll try harder." I say with an eye roll. I pull out my sketch book and continue working on my drawing from all of us from Jumper's Ledge.

"That's so amazing." Izzy says, snatching the sketch book and handing it to Alec so him and Jace can look at them. I only get upset when the boys start flipping through pages. I lunge across the table, grabbing the book out of Alec's hands, and pulling it into me. This book has been with me for five years, since my mom died, I don't need the boys seeing my raw emotion scribbled on a page.

"Sorry, but that is really private." I say, locking eyes with Jace and he nods slowly.

"Ok." He draws out, still eyeing me with a strange look, but he goes to his notebook, continuing to doodle.

"You know we are supposed to be drawing a distinct memory, not shapes, right?" I tell him and he glares up at me.

"That's meant to be a building." He narrows his eyes at me.

"Yikes, you really need help. Alec, move." I tell Alec, walking around the table and switching seats with Alec.

"You need a lot of help." I tell him, changing the page of the sketch book.

"Do not." He mumbles, sounding childish, but he is smiling. I lean over his shoulder, helping him, kind of, and Isabelle laughs.

"Can I take a picture of this." Izzy asks, pulling out her phone with a smile, "it's just too cute." She pokes fun and presses the camera button on her phone, making me roll my eyes.

"That was a mean face." Jace tells me and I knee him lightly in the back.

"Focus on drawing your shitty building, not on me." I tell him and he huffs, continuing to draw. I follow behind him, trying to shade and lighten up his lines.

"It's not shitty." He fake pouts and I sit back down in my chair.

"It's kinda bad." I tell him, going back to wok on mu own drawing, beginning to work on Alec jumping off the ledge.

The rest of the class goes by fine, I continue to draw and Jace tries every now and than to bang into me and mess me up, earning a kick from me. We all wait for the bell to ring before, 'running' out of the room, meeting ip with Simon and moving quickly to the bus. We are all very excited to move.

I plop down into the bus seat and Jace lands almost silently next to me and he drops his bag on the floor before turning to look at me, slight curiosity on his face.

"What'd Sebastian say to you?" He asks me, his voice coming our rough and I roll my eyes.

"You're still stuck on that?" I ask him and he nods, tossing his arm around my shoulders and I smile.

"Hey just yelled 'nice limp angel' after me and I showed him my favorite finger." I say and I feel his entire body go rigid, starting with his arm.

"Angel?" He asks and I nod, "I don't like it either."

"I'm going to kill him." Jace snarls, and I raise my brow at him, putting my hand on his chest.

"Not that I have a problem with that, but why?" I ask in return and he purses his lips.

"One, he doesn't need to be talking to you at all, and two, he used to call Izzy angel when the dated." Jace says, arm still tense and I lean into him. There is that word again, dating.

"If you are going to punch him, don't do it in school. If you get caught and get in trouble, I'll kill you." I say m making trouble sound like a toddler said it, and he suppresses his laugh, kissing the top of my head, causing my face to light up with blush and Izzy looks at us, brows raises. I wiggle out from underneath Jace's arm and lean back, looking up at him.

"We need to have the 'are we an us.' talk." I say, my voice low and he smiles, running a hand through his hair.

"I like that we are an us. What about us?" Jace says and the bus rolls up to our stop, and we all stand up, unloading. Jace and I hang back so we can have some privacy and have our chat.

"So.." I trail off and he smiles, taking my hands and he pulls me towards him.

"If I'm bad at anything, it's talking about how I fell. I know that if anything, I need you in my life Clary, as more than just a friend." He tells me and I smile, going up on my toes and pressing my lips lightly to his, as if to test out if he is going to throw me off. He gently pulls away, looking down at me, and he says, "you didn't let me finish." He says and my stomach drops. He is about shoot me down.

"Clary Fray, will you officially, all joking aside, be my girlfriend. You know I need you." He asks me with his stupid attractive crooked smile and I match it. This time, he makes the first move, bending down and pressing his lips to mine, slowly but firm and I melt into him. I feel his arms wrapping around my waist and I rub my hands up his back, feeling his muscles tense under my touch; I smile against him. I like that I have effect like this on him.

"We should probably go inside." Jace tells me, pulling away from me and I nod, trying to catch my breath. Jace laughs, grabbing me by my hand, leading me towards the door and Simon comes sprinting out, carrying two boxes. Izzy comes running after him, "Simon Lewis, give me my shit back!"

"They're going to get married one day." I laugh, telling Jace as we make our way to the stairs towards our soon to be old room to get our stuff.

"Ew, I don't need to hear that." Jace rolls his eyes, grabbing his box and grabbing my smaller one before I have the chance too.

"I can carry that myself." I tell him, putting my backpack on, as Alec walks out of the bathroom.

"You guys ready?" He asks us and we nod, following him down the stairs towards Ms. Wayland's office after he grabs his box. Izzy and Simon are already there, saying their goodbyes and we take our turns. I notice Jace seems to hold onto the old lady a bit longer then the rest of us, and I smile. He must really love her.

I go last, pulling her into a hug and she whispers in my ear, "I pray that your father never finds you Clarissa. And always know, if you ever need me, I will be here for you. You will always be welcome here." She tells me and I pull way, she hands me a house key and an address card.

"I do too, and thank you." I tell him, stepping back and Ms. Wayland smiles.

"Good luck you guys. All five of you, if something ever goes wrong, you are welcome back here." Ms. Wayland tells us, as we walk in a small huddle out towards the sidewalk. The new house is only about a ten minute walk, which us good because we can start taking the subway to and from school but only have a three minute walk to the Hunter's Moon. I walk closely to Jace, watching him closely but he doesn't really notice.

JACE'S POV

I definitely notice Clary's bright green orbs taking in every single detail on my face. I can feel her intense stare. I don't mind though, I think it is cute. But then again, just about nothing Clary could do would be cute.

"See something you like?" I tease her and she rolls her eyes, but she has a smile on her face.

"Ooh yeah." She says with a flirty tone, winking, and I make a small noise of surprise. I am not used to this type of behavior from her, not that I am complaining.

"Can y'all stop? I get it, you are in love or whatever, you proved it earlier when you guys made out in the front yard, but please control yourself." Alec says and Clary's face turns a bright pink, but I stay cool, raising my brow.

"Y'all Alec, really? I didn't know you were southern. Where'd you get that from? Maybe from that guy you have been hanging out around... what's his name? Magnus?" I ask and Alec flushes.

"Who's Magnus?" Simon asks and I smile.

"I am so glad you asked. Magnus is Alec's lover!" I tease Alec and Alec continues to flush.

"We are just friends." Alec says and I roll my eyes, but leave him alone.

"We will talk about this later." Izzy tells him, her voice firm. He groans, giving me a nasty look, and I look down at Clary, seeing her wild eyes awake again. I wish I knew what was going on in her head.

"Take it easy Fray." I say down into her ear and her eyes flash up at me.

"I am perfectly easy." She responds and I sigh. I would take her hand, or try to console her, but I am carrying two boxes. Her eyes continue to fly around the area. You can tell she is thriving off her flight or fight nature.

"No, no you aren't. Take a deep breath, we are almost to the house." I tell her and she sighs, nodding, trying to control her breathing.

We chat for a while, trying to pass some time, walking at a pretty quick pace, trying to keep up with Clary, who seems to be trucking on her little legs. We eventually reach the house and I smile. We have neighbors on either side of us and the house is a long shotgun style. Seeing the house in the flesh makes us realize how real this truly is. We are finally all moving forward in our life.

"Damn." I breath out, and Clary steps forward, unloving the front door, looking at us for permission to open it, "do it!" Izzy yells and she sighs, shoving the door open, "there is furniture." She yells, disappearing inside and looking around, making me lose sight of her. She is probably looking for a bedroom. The rest of us haul ass inside, racing each other towards bedrooms, hunting for one. Clary got settled in one that shares a bathroom with the room Isabelle picked. The stick their tongues out at me. Alec and I get rooms on the second floor, and Simon choices to stay in the basement; weirdo.

"Hey boys!" Isabelle yells, poking her head into the room, and Simon comes down at the sound of my sister's voice; once again, weirdo.

"I know it is Monday night or whatever, but can we go clubbing? None of us have work and today is a big accomplishment for us. We should celebrate!" Izzy says and I nod while Alec contemplates Izzy's idea.

"Sounds good. We will leave in an hour." Alec says and I nod in agreement. Sounds like fun. Izzy lets out a noise of excitement before running down the stairs.  
CLARY'S POV

"I've never been clubbing Iz, I don't know what to do and I've never had the type of clothes that I need to wear there." I whine and she gives me a pointed look before looking through her closet, "maybe I shouldn't go." I say and she rolls her eyes.

"You are coming, and wear thud." she throws me a little green thing and I change quickly into it. It barley covers my ass and it shows a lot of cleavage, whatever I have to show anyway.

"You look hot." Iz tells me and I glance between the mirror and her.

"Yeah, I guess I do." I walk into the bathroom to finish up getting ready. I use her stuff to do my makeup and straighten my hair, almost making it reach my butt. I finish up just as there is a bang on the bathroom door.

"Come on Fray, we are actually all waiting on you." Jace say and I let out a groan, scrambling out of the bathroom as fast as I can without my boobs popping out of my dress and I hear Jace intake a breath.

"Damn." He says, his eyes wandering around my body, making their up to my face and I feel heat burning in my cheeks

"You're hair." He exclaims, reaching a hand out to run his fingers through it, "you look just as stunning as usual, if not more."

"You don't look so bad yourself." I take in his black jeans and black shirt. I press up on my toes, pressing my lips to his, pulling away quickly.

"Come on." I tell him, leading him behind me by the hand, out towards the foyer, meeting up with everyone.

"We gotta go." Izzy says, opening the front door and we all make our way outside, shutting the door and Jace locks it.

"You look good." Izzy complements me and I laugh, flipping my hair over my shoulder and acting like a bratty pre-tween.

"I know." I say and Jace grabs me by the hand, pulling me into him. We walk in a small, almost protective clump as we meet the line that leads into the club. I guess we are going to have to wait. Jace comes up behind me, putting his arms around my waist and standing behind me, making my face flush. I am not used to all of this touchy stuff, but I don't exactly mind it.

"You guys are obnoxiously cute." Isabelle says and I smirk.

"And?" Jace says, tightening his arms around me, pulling me flush.

"Nothing." Izzy says, rolling her eyes and I look up at Jace, taking in his angular features. I would love to draw him one day, but I doubt I could get him to sit still long enough.

"Come on through." The body guard says, eyeing us, or more specifically me, as we walk into the club. Jace lets go of my waist, grabbing a hold of my hand and tugging me inside.

"Do you dance?" He asks me and before I have the chance to assert, my beautiful blonde boyfriend tugs me into the mob of people, encouraging me to dance to the loud EDM music. I swing my hips around, basically gliding around the dance floor, and Jace laughs, watching me with obvious curiosity.

"You never seize to amaze me." He tells me and I grab onto Jace's hand, pulling him towards me, basically forcing him to dance with mr. He laughs, putting his hands on my hips; we dance together, bodies rubbing against one and other and a lot of laughing. I press my lips to his, we stop dancing, not caring who sees as we kiss roughly, holding onto each other.

I am so new to this but Jace makes me feel like an old pro. This feels so comfortable and easy.


End file.
